Classic Poem

H AI , all ye good people! list what I tell ye,
What's done in Ukraina's plain—
There under Dashiev, across the Soroka,
What numbers of Poles now lie slain.

Hai, Perebiynees! But seven hundred
Cossacks he asked for that day.
Then he with sabres smote the Poles' heads off—
The rest swept the river away.

Drink ye swamp water, Oi! all ye Poles now—
Quench thirst at each rain-pond ye see. . . .
And once ye were drinking, in our Ukraina,
Wine and sweet mead flowing free!

Each Polish “Pan” is lost now in wonder;
“What do these brave Cossacks eat?
Verily, look ye, they live just on pike-flesh,
Solamàkha with water their meat.”

Look now, ye Poles, whom our Hetman Khmelnitzky
Fought on the grim “Yellow Sands,”
Of all your army fighting young Cossacks
Not one has escaped from our hands.

See, Pole! A Cossack is dancing, is dancing
Upon a grey horse after thee!
When he stands with his musket thy heart sinks in anguish
In great fear of death thou dost flee.

We own the whole land e'en as far as Sluch river,
Kostiana! As far as thy Hill—
O rude and uncourteous! Poles caused our revolting
So mourn they their lost Ukraine still.

As a thunder-cloud brooding on Vistula's river
The Poles lie, expelled from Ukraine.
As long as we live they shall no more leave Poland,
They shall not come nigh us again.

Hai! All ye young Cossacks! Leap up now with shouting—
Akimbo our arms let us place.
We threw all the Poles across Vistula's waters—
And here they won't dare show their face!