Jefimija
JefimijaJefimija, ćerka gospodara Drame
I žena despota Uglješe, u miru,
Daleko od sveta, puna verske tame,
Veze svilen pokrov za dar manastiru.
Pokraj nje se krve narodi i guše,
Prodaju carstva, svet vaskoliki cvili.
Ona, večno sama, na zlatu i svili
Veze strasne bole otmene joj duše.
Vekovi su prošli i zaborav pada,
A još ovaj narod kao nekada grca,
I meni se čini da su naša srca
U grudima tvojim kucala još tada,
I u mučne čase narodnoga sloma,
Kad svetlosti nema na vidiku celom,
Ja se sećam tebe i tvojega doma,
Despotice srpska s kaluđerskim velom!
I osećam tada da, ko nekad, sama,
Nad nesrećnom kobi što steže sve jače,
Nad plamenom koje obuhvata tama,
Stara Crna Gospa zapeva i plače…
Jefimija
Jefimija, daughter of the lord of Drama
And wife of the despot Uglješa, in peace
Far from the world, full of devout gloom,
Is weaving a silken shroud for a gift to the monastery.
All round her the peoples are bleeding and strangling one another,
Empires are falling, the whole world is wailing
She, eternally the same, on gold and silk
Embroiders the terrible sorrows of her lofty soul.
Centuries have gone by, oblivion is descending,
And still this people as of old, is being throttled,
And it seems to me that our own hearts
Were already beating in thy bosom, even then.
And in the torturing hours when our people are shattered,
When there is no light anywhere on the whole horizon,
I remember thee and thy house,
O Serbian princess with the nun's veil!
And I feel that now, lonely as of old,
Over the unhappy fate that grips ever tighter,
Over the race that is shut up in darkness,
The Black Lady of yore is chanting and weeping.
(Translated by Oliver Elton, The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 24, No. 63 (Jan., 1946), pp. 11-13)
Note by Rakić - Jefemija. Wife of the lord Uglješa, daughter of emperor Vojihna. After the disaster of the Maritsa she became a nun and took the name Jefemija. Her secular name is not known. In Hilandar there is a curtain which Jefemija embroidered and gave to the monastery.