redwillow

Once,
(it seems)
it was his comrade
very dear, this youth�s.

A maiden, she was.

Then, that maiden went
in search of a vision.

�TEN DAYS (says she) I am going
and    if    I    don�t    return
you will think already
that something has killed me�

But remember! her fiance. When she goes

he follows her,
this youth.
   He follows her
    and there...

       he kills her

this youth.

With an arrow he shot her.
Not anywhere
could he put the arrow.
He would hide it
and
go away

And ALWAYS

he would see it-
just a red glow.
    Burning
     Red
      Like Blood

Every kind of place he hid it.
But always he would see it

Just Glowing Red

There he said
�Damn it! (says he)
This is too much!
Where shall I put it?�

Then, the next time he shot it
    that arrow
(Off over that direction maybe)
and over there
it stuck amid
    willows.

And there he saw it not.

Now then. He went home
and there he would weep

�My fiance! (says he) My fiance!�

and he says to himself

�How could it be of me (says he) they would be suspicious,
that they should say,
   �HE (they may say) killed her?��

Thus he sang,
even as he was weeping.
And his younger brother
also plays at spearing targets
with arrows, and he sings too,

�My fiance! (says he) My fiance!�

as he spears targets.