A Serbian Parallel to "Barbara Allen"
A Serbian Parallel to "Barbara Allen"
by C. Merton Babcock
Western Folklore, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Oct., 1949), p. 371
A Serbian Parallel to "Barbara Allen."-The following Serbian popular song bears a close resemblance in many details to the familiar English ballad "Barbara Allen." To my knowledge, this similarity has not been previously pointed out. It was published in Vienna by Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic in 1833 (Narodne Serpske pjesme, izdao Wuk Stef). The translation, which included
no musical score, appeared in an article entitled "Slavic Popular Poetry," in the North American Review, XLIII (July, 1836), 85-120o:
UNION IN DEATH
Two young lovers loved each other fondly,
And they washed them at the self-same water,
And they dried them with the self-same napkin.
One year passed, their love was known by no one;
Two years passed, and all the world did know it,
And the father heard it and the mother;
And their love the mother would not suffer,
But she parted the two tender lovers.
Through a star the youth sent to the maiden;
"Die, O love, on Saturday at evening.
I, thy youth, will die on Sunday morning."
And they did as they had told each other;
Died the youth on Sunday morning early;
Close together were the two then buried;
Through the earth their hands were clasped together;
In their hands were placed two young green apples.
Little time had passed since they were buried;
O'er the youth sprang up a verdant pine-tree,
O'er the maid a bush with sweet red roses,
Round the pine-tree winds itself the rose-bush,
As the silk around a bunch of flowers.
C. MERTON BABCOCK
University of Denver