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Ye comrades of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, trees of Bialowieza,

Switez, Ponary, and Kuszelewo! whose shade once fell upon the

crowned heads of the dread Witenes and the great Mindowe, and of

Giedymin, when on the height of Ponary, by the huntsmen's fire,

he lay on a bear skin, listening to the song of the wise

Lizdejko; and, lulled by the sight of the Wilia and the murmur of

the Wilejko, he dreamed of the iron wolf;62 and awakened, by the

clear command of the gods, he built the city of Wilno, which sits

among the forests as a wolf amid bison, wild boars, and bears.

From this city of Wilno, as from the she-wolf of Rome, went forth

Kiejstut and Olgierd and his sons,63 as mighty hunters as they

were famous knights, in pursuit now of their enemies and now of

wild beasts. A hunter's dream disclosed to us the secrets of the

future, that Lithuania ever needs iron and wooded lands.