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Pumpurs, Andrejs, 1841-1902

"Bearslayer A free translation from the unrhymed Latvian into English heroic verse"


All there his skill admired,
His agile arm's strong weight.-
But news was not acquired
About Laimdota's fate.
But later, there he heard,
That in a cloister's court,
A woman was interred,
Thence from the Baltic brought.
The earl desired the maid,
To seize her deemed it right
The cloister's grounds to raid,
And steal her in the night.-
Her fate Koknesis knew,
Thus earnest vow he gave,
The unknown maiden true,
From such a fate to save.
When at the cloister gate,
Laimdota's face he saw,
He felt an endless hate,
And caution was no more!
And thus the slaughter grew,
No mercy would he show;
The earl's son, humbled, too
For misdeeds pain must know.

Scene 3: In the Realm of the North Wind
The boatmen's song summons the North Wind's Daughter
Long parted from the quay,
Thus sang the sailor folk,
Upon the Northern Sea,
Good fortune to invoke:
"Oh father, build a ship,
Oh mother, weave the sail,
We seek straight from the slip,
The North Wind's Daughter pale."-
"We travel night and day,
No North Wind's Daughter find,
And reach a northern bay,
Where snow three giants grind.


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