The Ballads of Marko Kraljević/Marko's Ploughing

by unknown author

MARKO'S PLOUGHING

Kraljević Marko sat at wine,
With the aged Jevrosima his mother.
And when they had enough drunken,
Marko's mother spake to him, saying:
"O my son, Kraljevic Marko,
Cease, my son, from thy adventures,
For evil may bring no good thing with it,
And it wearies thine aged mother,
That she must ever be washing bloody garments.
So take thou plough and oxen,10
Plough hill and valley,
Then sow, my son, fair wheat,
And thus shalt thou feed both thee and me."
Marko hearkened unto his mother,
He took plough and oxen,
But he ploughed not hill nor valley,
But he ploughed the Sultan's highway.
And there passed that way Turkish janissaries,
Having three charges of gold with them,
And they said to Kraljević Marko:20
"Go to, Marko, plough not the highway!"
"Go to, Turks," quoth he, "spoil not my ploughing!"
"Go to, Marko, plough not the highway!"
"Go to, Turks, spoil not my ploughing!"
And when it wearied Marko of words,
He swung plough and oxen on high,
And slew therewith the Turkish janissaries.
Then he took the three charges of gold,
And brought them to his mother,
"Behold," quoth he, "what I have ploughed for thee this day."30