KORCULA and MORESKA

 

 

 

Extract from Moreska Dialogues:

 

Bula: Leave me alone! Your demands are in vain
My charms belong to another man.
Sweet Osman, my beloved,
If you could see now
How my heart is breaking
And full of sorrow for you!
Although this odious steel
Binds my hands,
My heart is always with you
And yours with me.
I shall bear you in my heart
As long as I have life.

 

Moro: Stop wailing, my lady
I have had enough!
It is painful for me to listen
When you call my opponent your pride
Here, in front of my face
But I bear and endure it all
For the love I feel for you
My dear nymph, I give you my heart
For your sweet charms.

 

Bula: If you will
But one favour grant me,
All I ask
Is that you stop loving me.
Of far more pain for me
Is your unwanted love
Than the steel
That weighs upon my hands.

 

Moro: I will not leave you
Nor will I stop loving you.
I love honorably your everlasting beauty.
Ask whatever you wish,
Even my father's kingdom.

 

Drums are heard.
Enter the White Army.

 

Otmanovic: There is no fear in Otmanovic!

Osman: Do not trust your sword
Without honour and without honesty.
Treacherously, you wished to steal
My betrothed, by torturing her.
Where is your knightly honesty,
Where your bravery?
How did you dare to enslave her?
Let me remind you
That the army from my court
Is ready to rescue her.

 

Moro: You ask me to return her
To your hands. Never!
I would rather lose my head.

 

Bula: Ah, you wicked man!

 

Osman: If it were not that I disdain
To darken my sword with your blood,
And stoop from my might,
I should destroy you.

 

Otmanovic: Useless to be angry, Osman,
Listen to me.
There is no difference
Between our two crowns,
Both are full of glory
I am an emperor as you are!

 

Osman: How dare you compare
My crown with yours
Me, who reign over all the world,
From East to West, and fear nobody.

 

Moro: Ah! I cannot bear
Your offenses any more.
Fall then!

 

Osman: Now defend, come my army.

 

Bula: From this sharp sword I will willingly receive
The wound of death;
Come, deadly steel
If it will stop their mutual rage.

 

Moro: Console yourself, dear Nymph,
I could not bear to look
At your dead body in my lap.
Now, knight, gather your armour.
A fierce war is about to begin.

 

Bula: Then render me to him
I my death would afflict you.
My affliction is the greatest
Because I would rather choose death
Than your unwanted love.

 

Osman: To your arms, my soldiers,
Let everyone be witness to my honesty,
Which is as big as my empire.
Now, knight, gather your armour.
A fierce war is about to begin.

 

Moro: Willingly, oh knight,
I shall be fighting for the nymph.

Together
I am ready to fight for the damsel
Who arouses my love and noble passion;
Willingly, oh knight.

At the end of the 4th Kolap:

 

Bula: Oh, knights!
Do something to stop your wars
Which wound my heart and draw tears of
Blood from my eyes.
Turn your sword on me
And let him live
Take my life
But my beloved spare.

Moro: As long as I have
Power in my hands
I will cause him strife
Rather than lose you.

 

Osman: You are going to lose
Either by defeat or by slavery.
My strength and courage
Will force you to relinquish her to me.

At the end of the 7th Kolap:

 

Osman: You've lost all your dignity
And now you are my slave for good.

 

Moro: I readily to you my sword surrender
It has grown heavy in my hands.
And with it I return your Bula.

 

Bula: My dear, sweet love,
For whom my heart is longing,
Receive the gift of my eternal faith,
Take me, your constant love.

 

Osman: Let this chaste kiss
Be a reward for all my suffering