Olesia

There dwells in the woods of Polesye**
A magical lassie – Olesia,
She lives by the lore now foreign,
She beckons me into the forest…

“Olesia, Olesia, Olesia” –
The birds of the blue,
The birds of the blue,
The birds of the blue
Love confessing…
Olesia, Olesia, Olesia!
Stay with me, my dear Olesia –
My melody, magic, my blessing…

The young April birches are weeping –
Afraid of the treacherous winter,
Their branches she strokes, so mellow,
And tears turn to dew on the meadow…


Refrain


In woodlands of magic Polesye –
That sylvan enchantress, Olesia,
She’s waiting and dreaming and hoping,
But happiness happens not often…


Refrain
Refrain


Olesia, Olesia, Olesia…
Olesia, Olesia, Olesia
Olesia, Olesia…


*The name Olesia is an ancient Slavic name. It means “a sylvan girl” or a “girl living in the woods.” This song describes a girl from a novelette by Alexander Kuprin, Russian story-teller of the 19th-20th centuries. The story tells the story of a sylvan girl with witch powers and bewitching powers and of her love with a young Russian nobleman, who incidentally gets lost in the woods.

**Polesye – the word itself means low, sometimes marshy, woodlands. However, it’s also a proper name: the woodlands shared by Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Poland. The story described above takes place in the Ukrainian part of Polesye.