ACROSS the Don a plank lay, thin and bending; No foot along it passed. But I alone, the young one, from the hill, I went along it with my true-love dear, And to my love I said: "O darling, dear! Beat not thy wife without a cause, But only for good cause beat thou thy wife, And for a great offence. Far away is my father dear, And farther still my mother dear; They cannot hear my voice, They cannot see my burning tears." |