Воин Вереска [Voin Vereska] [English translation]

There is mist o’er the swamp

Howls of wolves wiping out footprints

I might think I were stoned

Though I drank but ice water of springs

From a pitcher that you held out to me

Seeing off for the roadway

From which I know I’ll never come back

Wait or not, I will never come back

No one can link the ring of shaggy hills

And narrow is the way on blades of rain

And never seek – you’ll never find the prints

Which Froach 1 Warrior 2 has left on his farewell

Like a wounded wild beast

I will softly walk on a tight string 3

I’m not worthy, believe,

Of you shedding your tears for me

Of you tracking the prints

Of my blood in the dark –on red bilberries in moss

Up the gate beyond which there’s cold and gloom

You don’t know, there’s cold and gloom 4

No one can link the ring of shaggy hills 5

And narrow is the way on blades of rain

And never seek – you’ll never find the prints

Which Heather Warrior has left on his farewell

And one day you’ll breathe in

Poignant incense of October full moon

And the knife your heart keeps

Will thrust pain up from depths of the wound 6

Do you really expect this malice to turn real,

This vile ghost of the dark steel

Just again to give me some water to drink

This mind-blowing clean crystal cold drink?

No one can link the ring of shaggy hills

And narrow is the way on blades of rain

And never seek – you’ll never find the prints

Which Heather Warrior has left on his farewell

And never seek in frosty gloom the prints

Which Froach Warrior has left on his farewell

1. Gaelic for “heather” In Scottish Gaelic is read like “fewer” with the sound “r” it’s like “frewer” and “h” (like in “hat”) at the end. So it gives us “Freweh” 2. Fraoch was a hero of Celtic mythology who was famous for his great deeds. 3. Once when Froach was mortally wounded one hundred and fifty maidens all clad in green treated him to life water from local springs and brought him back to life 4. On his bride's parents' request Fraoch stole a fruit that restored youth and cured hunger. It grew on a rowan tree guarded by a dragon. But the parents who disapproved of him coerced him to get the tree itself. The dragon pursued him. In the ensuing battle, both Fraoch and the dragon died. A cairn was raised on the spot where Fraoch fell. This mound is the chief attraction on Fraoch Eilean, or Heather Island, a small island at the northern end of Loch Awe, a freshwater lake in Scotland 5. One of Fraoch's deeds was to procure a precious gold ring from the belly of a monstrous salmon 6. Fraoch Eilean has another landmark - the ruins of a medieval castle called "The Castle of the Red-Haired Maiden". The legend has it that a beautiful redhead was stabbed by her father, the castle owner, and thrown down into Loch Awe for saving her lover who her father was going to kill