Legend of the Buzău River

Once upon a time, in the land of the Emperor Zizin the Dragon, there was a very poor woman who lived alone in a village dug into the ground at the edge of the village.

All the people of the village came to the woman’s village and asked the woman to give the child to them to raise.But the woman didn’t.The news of the child reached Zizin the King who ordered that the child be brought to his court to raise. When the emperor’s envoys were refused by the woman, Zizin the King himself went to the woman’s cottage, and when he arrived there, he was astonished at what he saw: the child was all gold, laughing and cooing:
– Woman, give me your child!
The woman, who did not know to whom she was speaking, replied:
– I will not give him, even if the king comes and I still will not give him!
But the child spoke at that time:
– Give me mother!
Then turning to the emperor:
– Take me, my lord!
And Zizin-Crai took him and his mother to his palace, which was surrounded on all sides by high mountains. The child grew with his eyes, becoming more handsome, more lively and more handsome, but at the same time the child’s nature changed, becoming more thoughtful and closed-hearted.Therefore the emperor and the empress gave him the name Buzau, that is, the incomprehensible and troubled one.Young as he became, in all power, at the emperor’s gates came messengers from the Black Emperor, who wished to see Buzau and entrust him to their emperor. But the command was not carried out, and it was not long before the army of the Black Emperor broke into the country.Buzau became more and more restless and offered to help his father, gathering a band of braves with whom he set out to meet the invading army.By day, so as not to be seen, the soldiers gathered in a light weave of his hair, like sunbeams.
One evening, Buzau heard a wonderful voice and a sweet song that enchanted his soul:
“Buzau, Buzau
From your hair
A strand to cut,
“Let it be tossed on the ground
# Thread of light
# Longing soothes
# Thread of silk
Longing is my grasp.”
But whose voice was it? It was the daughter of the Black Emperor, named Sânziana, whom people said was astonishingly beautiful.Sânziana had been married to Danube-Balaur, a wicked but rotten rich man.Hearing the girl’s wonderful voice, Buzău plucked a strand of hair and blew it in the wind, and for a moment he saw the girl’s face. The next day, Buzau bade farewell to his hosts, wished health to Emperor Zizin and the Empress, and went on his way through the mountain valleys, hidden under the golden shroud of his hair:
“Out of thy hair
A strand to cut,
“Let it be tossed on the plain”
and he would pluck out another golden hair to see the girl’s face.
– Who art thou, fair and bright face, that thou comest and goest in the glow of my hair?
“I am the daughter of a king
Flower of heaven,
If you want to reach me
“Tear off your hair
Ring by ring
# To bind it
Bridge of gold
To the Danube-Balaur.”
And he walked, he walked Buzău, the mountains grew cold, the sky opened wider and wider, and while with one hand he pulled out hairs, with the other he tried to realize that he didn’t have many left.Bereft of strength, his face full of blood, he reached the shore of a water line and asked for the Danube-Balaur.
– I am Siretul,” he answered, “I am going to Danube-Balaur, and I carry with me all the treasures I have dug up from the depths.
Left without a hair, Buzău bent down in anguish on the water’s edge and looked at his face, bloody and wrinkled as in a mirror. The face of the beauty came back to his mind, big tears filled his eyes, he had sacrificed everything he had held most dear, his golden hair, and yet he had not reached the Danube-Balaur.Suddenly, he collapsed into the water, tumbling into the depths.At the same time, behind him, all the road he had travelled turned into a river whose waves resembled his golden hair.
The people called it the water of Buzău, and it remains so to this day.

Source: www.carpati.org