Through the squares and down the avenues,
In one line drags the procession,
O'er the fields, beyond the city,
Shining, monstrous snake resembling.
Well I know that you would query
Why this marching, why this singing?
When a truce was signed for five years
With the warring Turkish peoples,
When all ships with treasures laden
Daily enter island harbors,
As the Island, like a pearl,
Is hemmed in with silvery waters.
Crops and grapes are fully ripened,
Wherever your eye but wanders,
And the fishermen pull daily
Burdened nets from depths of ocean.
Neither pirates of the ocean,
Neither Turk, the godless heathen,
Neither hunger nor poor harvest
But a greater, greater evil,
Greater danger dreads the islet.
From the distant steppes past Ural,
From the land of fog eternal,
Monstrous bird to skies has risen
Bringing dread to all the people.
33
