2.3


Loupežník Nikola Šuhaj

Ota Holub


Then Adam Ivanič stood up - he said it was about time to go. He raised his axe, but before he
turned aroud, the edge of the axe whizzed through the air and Ivanič struck the older Šuhaj right
on his head. Nikola fell down immediately. Danilo Markus swiftly took Šuhaj’s rifle that he had
dropped, and fired it at the body of the beaten Šuhaj four times. Jura did not have time to realize
what was happening - Ivan Burkalo pulled out his rifle; before Jura had time to shoot, his head was
hit with the axe-edge, which slid down and terribly injured his chest. Then a shot was heard.


All three murderers testified about the horrible slaughter at a trial in Berehov a couple of months
later: it was a horrific description of the double-murder, as dreadful as the murders commited by
the Šuhajs had been.








































2.3


Balada pro banditu

Milan Uhde


Tell my mom, Jesus Christ,

not to prepare a supper for me.

Neither a supper, nor breakfast,

that I am already beaten, bound

Tell my mom, Jesus Christ,

to make ready a pair of shirts for me.

The first one thin, fine,

the second flaxen, a white one.

In the first shirt I will be imprisoned,

in the second one I will be hanged.

Do not hang me on an oak tree,

there I would be eaten by pidgeons.

Let me be hanged on a fir tree,

where my beloved comes to the well.

In the morning when she comes for some water,

she can shoo the raven from the tree.

Ej, hešu, hešu, birds,

that my head is half cut-off.

Ej hešu, hešu, raven,

that I used to be a good man.

Jura: (speaks) Nikola, they’re coming.

Nikola: Who?

Jura: Derbak and Danko. I am sure they are shills. Are we going to shoot them?

Nikola: They don’t have any rifles. Let’s listen to them first.

Derbak: (has an axe) Good evening, Nikola.

Nikola: What’s going on?

Oreb Danko: (also with an axe) Are you hungry?

Jura: What are you doing with those axes?

Derbak: We just went to woods for some twigs.

Nikola: Well, sit down.

Derbak: (to Jura, who is aiming at them) And what about you, Jura? You look like a policeman who’s
gonna arrest us.

Jura: You know too much about policemen, Derbak.

Derbak: Well, I was in jail, not like you and your brother.

Nikola: Question, Derbak: haven’t you come because of food?

Derbak: Mageri wants you to know that he has a shelter for you. (to Jura) And for that one too.
(drinks) Do you want a sip?

Nikola: Pass it over. (having a sip) What kind of shelter? (drinks)

Derbak: (stands up to the left to Jura) A good one.

Oreb Danko: (stand up to the right to Jura) A safe one.

Derbak: This one. (jumps toward the drinking Nikola and hits him on his head with the axe)

Jura: (jumps back, fires, but Oreb Danko pushes his arm aside and hits him with the axe, they
fight, until Derbak hits Jura with the second axe, Jura falls down)

Derbak: (hits Nikola once more, who is lying on the ground; breathes deeply, looks around like
somebody who can’t believe his own eyes) It seems to me, boy, that they’re gone.