Page:The Ballads of Marko Kraljević.djvu/109



sat at supper with his mother, And she began to speak with Marko: "O my son, Kraljević Marko, Thy mother is now well stricken in years, She cannot prepare thy supper, She cannot serve the dark wine, She cannot make light with the pine splinter. Take thee a wife, therefore, my dearest son, That so I may have a successor afore I die." Marko said to his aged mother: "God be my witness, dear old mother! Through nine kingdoms have I been, Yea, through ten, and the tenth was the Turkish Empire; When I found a maiden for myself, There was no friend for thee, And when I found friends for thee, For me there was no maiden there. Yet stay, one maid there was, At the court of King Šišman, Mother mine, on Bulgarian soil, I found her by the waters of the cistern, And when I saw her, mother, Meseemed the ground turned about me. Behold, mother, the maid for me, And for thee also worthy friends. Make ready of slender meal-cakes, That I may go and ask the maid in marriage." Of that word had his mother exceeding great joy. She waited not until the day dawned, But already she made for him the sugared cakes. And when day dawned on the morrow, Marko made ready himself and Sharatz.