OLD POLISH ON-LINE
MIDDLE AGES
RENAISSANCE
BAROQUE
GUESTBOOK
SPECIAL THANKS
WHAT'S NEW
UNDER
E Y E
T H E
Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński
6/10
SONGS
Songs
- SONG I
- SONG II
- SONG III
- SONG IIII
- SONG V
- SONG VI
- SONG VII
- SONG VIII
- SONG IX
- AN EPIGRAM ON THE SAME...
_________________________
Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński - SONG VI - ON STRUS, SLAIN AT THE RIVER RASTAWICA BY TARTARS IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD [1571]
SONG VI
ON STRUS, SLAIN AT THE RIVER RASTAWICA BY TARTARS
IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD [1571]
Should a Theban chief who fell smashing
The dauntless Spartan seem better-content
Than Aemilius, who, slain with his forces
At Cannae, with lustrous depart quit this life?
Well be it the former, yet finer fame
Be his who, unfearing, met fatal mishap
Yet to a bloody victor did all time show
Constant visage, whilst others in swift
Steed, not steel, placed their trust,
All glory forsaking for fear so futile.
Faster shall Rastawica, ill-luck's stream
First loose her waters, daring and worthy
Strus, than would thy life's ending pass
To obscurity 'mongst those of the knightly caste.
His wont was to die by a treasonous Infidel's
Shafts, than basely show his back to the foe's eye;
When foolishly a cohort closeby counseled
Flight like the rest from so vicious a time,
This he spoke: "Indulge, if you would, the moment;
Fame, I'd rather appease. Death cometh in war,
And likewise in bed; as a coward's spine
Be death-prone, no less the breast of one brave.
My forebears I'd not betray; for the Commonwealth
I'll fall sacrifice, God gram it be memorous."
Scarce he'd spoke when lo, as a lion unlearned
In flight, fast circled by a legion of hounds
And a thousand hunters with bows at the ready,
Slaying the closest, with roars he unmans the rest.
All, all lack the pluck to take him head on,
As their wounds they afflict far afield;
Faint, he now hankers for one final revenge,
Searching for whom his dead fang he'd bequeath...
'Twas thus in a last contest Strus did engage,
Giving amply of self for honour and fame;
Bloody he fell, crushed by the shafts' torrent,
A fine native Son by his deeds so valiant!
Translated by Richard Sokoloski
<<
strona
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
>>