Arany János - Győrei Zsolt (szerk.): The trill of the nightingale (Budapest, 2019)
III - „His voice, once fine and heady, still a grumble deep” - Mistress Agnes (William N. Loew, Ádám Makkai)
Mistress Agnes Mistress Agnes in the streamlet comes to wash her linen sheet; downward is the blood-stained cover carried by the current fleet - Lord, Father of Mercy, protect us! “Mistress Agnes, what’s the laundry?” urchins goad her from the street, “Children, go away, keep quiet; chicken’s blood has stained my sheet.” Lord, Father of Mercy, protect us! Neighbors’ wives then come, keep asking: “Where’s your husband, Agnes, say?” “Why, my dears, at home he’s sleeping, do not go and wake him, pray!” Lord, Father of Mercy, protect us! “Mistress Agnes,” says the sheriff, “come to prison now with me.” “Oh, my dove, I cannot go till from all stains this sheet is free.” Lord, Father of Mercy, protect us! Deep the prison, one ray only brings to its shades feeble light; this one gleam is all that shines there, ghosts and visions crowd the night. Lord, Father of Mercy, protect us! All day long poor Mistress Agnes facing this faint glimmer sits; looks and glares at it unceasing as before her eyes it flits. Lord, Father of Mercy, protect us! For whenever she looks elsewhere ghosts appear before her eyes; did this one ray not console her? Sure, she thinks, her reason flies. Lord, Father of Mercy, protect us!
