THE SISTER OF LEKA KAPETAN[1]
From the world's creation,
No greater marvel hath been,
Nor hath nowhere been heard tell of,
Than the marvel they say at Prizren,
Of the household of Kapetan Leka;
And the marvel they say is of the maid Rosanda.
God! How fair she is, may no ill befall her!
In the four quarters of the earth,
In all the lands of Turk and of Giaour,
There was not her like for beauty in the whole world,10
Neither white Turkish maid nor Vlach,
Nor yet no damsel of slender Latin breed.
They that had seen the mountain Vila
Said that the Vila, brother, might not compare with her.
The maid grew up in a cage[2];
Fifteen years, they say, she dwelt encaged,
And saw not the sun nor yet the moon,
And the marvel was bruited through the world.
The tale went from mouth to mouth.
Until they heard it in Prilep;20
And Marko Kraljević, the hero, heard it.
And it pleased Marko passing well,
That they praised her and spake no ill of him,
And him seemed that if she should be his wife,
Then Leka would be to him a worthy friend,
With whom he might drink wine
- ↑ "Captain" is not a suitable translation. Something equivalent to "governor" would be appropriate, but I have left the title "Kapetan" as in the original.
- ↑ у кавезу: perhaps not so figurative as it seems considering the way in which women were guarded. The same thing is referred to in the fairy-tale "Чардак ни на небу ни на земли" which begins "Био један Цар, па имао три сина и једну кћер, коју је у кафезу хранио и чувао као очи у глави." Сриске Народне Приповијетке, p. 7 (Биоград 1897).
