ru_translate | Kateryna had a cabin...

Kateryna had a cabin
With a wooden floor.
From the glorious Rapids Host
The guests rode in.
One was Simon the Barefoot,
The second - Ivan the Naked,
The third - the brave widow's son
Ivan Yaroshenko.
"We've ridden through all of Poland,
And all of Ukraine,
But never saw another woman
Like this Kateryna."
One says, "Brother,
If I were rich,
I would give up all my gold
To this Kateryna
For a single hour."
The second says, "Friend,
If I were strong,
I would give up all my strength
To this Kateryna
For a single hour."
The third says, "Boys,
There is nothing in the world
That I wouldn't do
For this Kateryna
For a single hour."

Kateryna gave this a thought,
And says to the third one,
"I have an only brother
In enemy dungeon.
In Crimea he is rotting;
Who will get him out,
Cossacks of the Rapids,
He will be my husband."
The three of them rose,
Their horses mounted,
And rode away to free
Kateryna's brother.
One drowned
In the mouth of Dnieper,
The second in Gezlev
On a stake was impaled.
The third, Ivan Yaroshenko,
The brave widow's son,
From slavery cruel,
From Bakchisarai,
Is freeing the brother.

Early in the morning squeaked
The door of the house.
"Get up, get up, Kateryna,
Come and meet your brother."
Kateryna looked at them,
And cried out loud,
"He is no brother, I fooled you,
He is my beloved..."
"You fooled me!" To the ground
Kateryna's head dropped.
"Let's get out, brother,
From this foul house."
Away rode the Rapids Cossacks,
The steppe wind a-chasing,
Kateryna the black-browed
In a field they buried,
And in the steppe took an oath,
And became blood brothers.

Second half of 1848, Kos-Aral.