Second Soul
This, my sisters, is the reason
Why they barred me also,
For I watered well the horse
Of the Moscow ruler
There in Baturin, when he
Went back from Poltava.
I was but a little maiden,
When at night the Moskals
Set in flames great Baturin
And they murdered Chechel
And they drowned the young and adults
In the river Seyma.
I fell down among the corpses
In the very chambers
Of Mazepa. And around me
Mother and my sister,
Murdered in each other's arms,
Lay there dead beside me.
Then by force and violence
From my stricken mother
They removed me once for all.
And I kept on begging
From a Moscow captain that he
Would kill me at once.
But they did not. No, they sent me
As a toy for Moskals.
But I ~ed and found a refuge
'Mid the raging fire
There was but one house left standing
In all Baturin.
In lhat house they had determined
That thc tsar would stay
On his way back from Poltava.
And I went with water
To the house . . . And then he beckoned
With his hand to me.
And he bade me tend his horse.
So I gave it water.
I had no idea I'd wrought
Such a grievous sin.
I had scarcely reached the building
When I fell down dead.
The next day, when he departed,
I was safely buried
By grandmother, who was staying
'Mid the growing fire.
For she laid me out with kindness
In a roofless building.
On the next daY she died too
And decayed right there,
For in Baturin was no one
Who could bury victims
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