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316 FOLK-SONGS OF ROUMANIA.
A peculiar character in the Roumanian songs is that of the Heiduck, a sort of combination, it would seem, of the knight - errant and the brigand, with all the legendary attributes of beauty, strength, courage, and generosity of the half-fabulous popular heroes of all nations. The Song of the Heiduck has all the buoyant spirit and gayety appropriate to such a figure, but is overshadowed also by a sort of elfin sadness and the doom of a supernatural fate, which is chiefly to be found in those nations which have a tinge of oriental mysticism, and is a marked feature of the Roumanian folk-songs. The Celtic mysticism, where it exists, is more strictly religious.
THE HEIDUCK'S SONG.
/ tell the forest the wonders I see in my dreams And the forest loves to hear the tale of my dreaming
More than the song of birds,
More than the murmur of leaves.
The huts had well-nigh beguiled me to stay, for the windows Stood wide, and the smiles of the maidens shone out from
within, But the Heiduck am I — and I love the far-stretching roads
And the plain, and my galloping steed. My mother gave birth to me, sure, on a sunshiny morning, And had I but never known love, ah, how happy were I! I sing at the hour when the moon climbs above the horizon j The tales that the aged folk know, I can tell, every one, |
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