I pass dames neither silently nor easy...




I pass dames neither silently nor easy,
And here’s a tale about the Old Vixen¹ -
About her twig besom and snide tricks,
About what didn’t happen and what did.

She lures up passers in deep water -
Her favored ones are young females;
She stilly drives her hellish mortar,
And skillfully covers up the trails...

¹ The Old Vixen, in the original text, is Baba Yaga. In Russian folklore, it is a witch - a ferocious-looking old woman, who flies around in a mortar and lives deep in the forest in a hut.