This heroic song appears as the first song in Yakiv Holovatsky's 1878 collection Народные песни Галицкой и Угорской Руси, Part I, Думы и думки. The printed title is ВАЙДА, while the body of the song uses Байда; this edition gives the public title as Baida (Vayda) so both forms remain visible.

The song belongs to the Baida ballad tradition: Baida drinks in Constantinople, refuses the Turkish ruler's offer, is hung on a hook by the rib, and then asks his young retainer for bow and arrows. The source's language carries older frontier and religious polemic, including the word rendered here as "heathen"; the translation keeps that historical texture visible as source language.

This is a new source-close translation from the Holovatsky Part I witness, not a claim to be the first English version of the Baida song. The original source text is included below for verification.

1. Baida

1564

From Maksymovych, 1834, p. 106; Pauli I, 130.

In Constantinople, in the marketplace,
Baida drinks mead and horilka.
Oh, Baida drinks not for one day, not two,
not for one night, nor for one little hour.
Oh, Baida drinks and sways,
and looks toward his young servant:
"O my servant, my very young one,
will you be faithful to me?"

The Turkish tsar sends to him,
coaxing Baida to himself:
"Oh you, Baida, so famed!
Be my knight and faithful man;
take my princess for yourself,
and you will be lord over all Ukraine."

"Your faith, O tsar, is accursed;
your princess is heathen."

The tsar cried out to his haiduks:
"Take Baida firmly in hand;
take Baida and bind him;
hook him by the rib."

Oh, Baida hangs not for one day, not two,
not for one night, nor for one little hour.
Oh, Baida hangs and thinks,
and looks toward his servant,
toward his young servant,
and toward his black horse.

"O my servant, my young one!
Give me the bow, the taut one;
give me the tight little bow
and a whole bundle of arrows.
Oh, I see three little doves;
I want to kill them for his daughter.
Where I measure, there I hit;
where I aim, there I strike."

Oh, when he shot, he hit the tsar,
the tsarina in the back of the head,
his daughter in the head.

"That is for you, O tsar,
for Baida's punishment.
You should have known
how to punish Baida:
you should have cut off Baida's head,
buried his body,
ridden the black horse,
and taken the lad into your favor."

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was made from Yakiv Holovatsky's Народные песни Галицкой и Угорской Руси, Part I, Думы и думки, published in Moscow in 1878. The translated unit is song 1, ВАЙДА, printed on pages 1-2 of Part I.

The English was translated directly from the source-language witness, using the OCR only as a navigation aid and checking the working source text against source-page images. No existing English translation was used as the base.

Source note: Цариградѣ is rendered as "Constantinople"; горѣлочка is rendered as "horilka"; цюра is rendered as "servant" in the line, in the sense of a young retainer or camp attendant; Царь Турецкій is kept as "Turkish tsar"; поганая is rendered as "heathen" as period religious polemic; and гайдуки is kept as "haiduks."

Overlap note: English Baida translation traces existed before this edition, including a record of Theodore Luciw's 1970 Song of kozak Baida in Marta Tarnawsky's Ukrainian Literature in English, 1966-1979. This edition therefore makes no first-English claim.

Source route: Internet Archive identifier golovatskyj1878; source images checked at IA PDF pages 7-8 / printed pages 1-2, with IA PDF page 9 checked as the next-song boundary. The underlying 1878 source is public-domain-era under the Good Works Library's United States operating posture.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Works Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: ВАЙДА

Old Ukrainian/Rusyn source text from Yakiv Holovatsky's 1878 Народные песни Галицкой и Угорской Руси, Part I, Думы и думки, song 1, printed pages 1-2. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above. Printed line numbers are omitted.

ВАЙДА.

(И. Максимовича, 1834, стр. 106. - Паули I, 130.)

Въ Цариградѣ на рыночку
Та ье Байда мёдъ, горѣлочку;
Ой ье Байда, та не день, не два,
Недну нӧчку, та й не годиночку;
Ой ье Байда, тай кивается,
Та на свого цюру поглядается:

• Ой цюро жь мӧй, молодесенькій!
  Таи будешь менѣ вѣрнесенькій?»

Царь Турецкій к нему присылае,
Байду къ собѣ подмовляе:

• Ой ты, Байдо, та славнесенькій!
  Будь менѣ лыцарь та вѣрнесенькій,
  Возьми въ мене царёвночку,
  Будешь паномъ на всю Вкраиночку!»
• «Твоя, царю, вѣра проклятая,
  Твоя царёвночка поганая.» -
  Ой крикнувъ царь на свои гайдуки:
• «Возьмѣть Байду добре въ руки,
  Возьмѣть Байду, извяжѣте,
  На гакъ ребромъ зачепѣте!»-

Ой висить Байда, та й не день, не два,
Не одну нӧчку, та й не годиночку;
Ой висить Байда, та й гадає,
Та на свого цюру споглядає,
Та на свого цюру молодого,
И на свого коня вороного.

• «Ой цюро жь мӧй молоденькій!
  Подай менѣ лучокъ та тугесенькій,
  Подай менѣ тугій лучокъ,
  И стрѣлочокъ цѣлый пучокъ!
  Ой бачу я три голубочки,
  Хочу я убити для его дочки.
  Де я мѣрю, тамъ я въ цѣлю,
  Де я важу, тамъ я вражу.»-
  Ой якъ стрѣливъ - царя вцѣливъ,
  А царицю въ потылицю,
  Его доньку въ головоньку.

• «Отъ то жъ тобѣ, царю,
  За Байдыну кару!
  Було тобѣ знати,
  Якъ Байду карати:
  Було Байдѣ голову изтяти,
  Его тѣло поховати,
  Воронымъ конемъ ѣздити,
  Хлопця собѣ зголубити.»

Source Colophon

Source witness: Yakiv Holovatsky, Народные песни Галицкой и Угорской Руси, Part I, Думы и думки, Moscow, 1878, song 1, printed pages 1-2. Internet Archive identifier: golovatskyj1878, https://archive.org/details/golovatskyj1878.

The working source text was checked against source-page images of IA PDF pages 7-8, with page 9 checked as the next-song boundary. This source transcription is a lightly corrected reading witness and is not a full diplomatic edition.

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