the maiden’s bridegroom?”
Softly did the marriage-leader answer:
“Sweetest sister! fairest maid, Ajkuna!
Look to right, and look to left, about thee;
Dost thou see that old man in the distance,
Who like an effendi sits so proudly
In the farthest palanquin of scarlet,
Whose white beard o’ercovers all his bosom?
Lo! it is the aged Mustaph Aga;
He it is who’s chosen for thy bridegroom.”

And the maiden look’d around the circle
And within her sad heart sighing deeply,
Once again she ask’d the marriage-leader:
“Who is he upon that white horse seated,
He who bears so high aloft the banner,
On whose chin that sable beard is growing?”
And the leader answers thus the maiden:
“He’s the hero Suko of Urbinia;
He who for thee with thy brother struggled,—
Struggled well indeed, but could not win thee.”
When the lovely maiden heard the leader,
On the black, black earth, anon she fainted:
All to raise her, hastening, gather round her,
And the last of all came Mustaph Aga;
None could lift her from the ground, till Suko
Sticks into the earth his waving banner,
Stretches out his right hand to the maiden.
See her, see her! from the ground upspringing,
Swift she vaults upon his steed behind him;
Rapidly he guides the courser onwards,
Swift they speed across the open desert,
Swift as ever star across the heavens.

When the old man saw it, Mustaph Aga,
Loud he screamed with voice of troubled anger:
“Look to this, ye bidden to the wedding!
He, the robber! bears away my maiden:
See her, see her borne away for ever.”
But one answer met the old man’s wailings:
“Let the hawk bear off the quail in safety,—
Bear in safety—she was born to wed him;
Thou, retire thee to thy own white dwelling!
Blossoms not for thee so fair a maiden!”