Three maidens

Three fair maidens,
Three maidens, three sisters,
Three embroidered wedding dresses.
The youngest said
Love will come,
It will come with the dawn.
Suddenly death came
And took her away.
Two fair maidens,
Two maidens, two sisters,
Two embroidered wedding dresses.
The second said
Perhaps death will come
And only you will remain.
Soon love came
And took her away.
And now I wait alone.

[Tri vajza, from the volume Këngë arbereshe, Tirana: Naim Frashëri 1982, p. 102, translated from the Albanian by Robert Elsie, and first published in English in An elusive eagle soars, anthology of modern Albanian poetry, London: Forest Books 1993, p. 61]