Sacred-Texts Legends & Sagas Index Previous Next

p. 97

TSÁRITSA MÍLITSA AND VLÁDETA THE VOÝVODA

MÍLITSA the tsáritsa went walking up and down
Below the wall of Krúshevats and the ramp of the white town,
And also Vúkosava and Mara, her daughters dear,
When Vládeta, the voývoda, on a charger brown drew near.
Sweated that steed had been, indeed, and the white foam stained his side.
 “God aid thee, marshal of the king!” Queen Mílitsa she cried;
“Why sweats the stallion? Hast thou not come from Kósovo this day?
Sawest thou not my lord and thine?” 
And Vládeta did say:
 “God aid me, Tsáritsa Mílitsa! I come from Kósovo.
I saw not the tsar, but his white steed the Turks drove to and fro,
Up and down by Kósovo, and I dread that the tsar is slain.”
 When Queen Mílitsa had heard it, on her cheeks the tears did rain,
And anew she asketh the voývoda: 
“What tidings of the tsar?
Sawest thou Yug’s nine children at Kósovo that are;

p. 98

And the tenth, Yug Bogdan, their father?” 
And Vládeta replied:
 “I rode by level Kósovo, and I saw them in that tide—
Yug and his nine strong children at Kósovo have I seen.
Their arms were red to the shoulders, and red were the sabers keen;
Weary were their arms at Kósovo with cutting the Moslems down.”
 Yet again unto the voývoda the tsáritsa spake on:
“Sawest thou Milosh and Bránkovich, my daughters’ lords that are?”
 Vládeta answered: 
“At Kósovo, in the center of the war,
There saw I Milosh Óbilich that leaned on his broken spear;
He is dead ere now, for the Moslems pressed on him very near.
Vuk Bránkovich I saw not. Never may sun him see!
That same betrayed Tsar Lazar, the lord of thee and me.”

Next