” HUNTSMAN, that on the hills above
To hunt the deer hast been,
Tell me, I pray thee, if my love—
My wild deer thou hast seen ?
” He sought the hills his grief to quell—
My darling love, my sun.
He wandered out upon the fell,
My flower, my only one. “
” Maiden, I saw your lover true,
All girt with red and green.
Upon his breast a rose tree grew
Where once your kiss had been. “
” Huntsman, I pray, who is the bride
Of my beloved, my sun ?
Who tends him, watching by his side,
My flower, my only one ? “
” Maiden, I saw him with his head
Upon a stone at rest.
And for his love, a bullet red
Into his heart was pressed.
” The mountain breeze caressingly
Played with his jet-black hair,
And blossoms wept unceasingly
Your flower, your lover there. “
Armenian legends and poems by Zabelle C. Boyajian and Aram Raffi, London & New York, 1916.