A little story: this is one of the songs that we sang together in its current arrangement - Nila, Sarah, and Rachel - while we were still at Yale, singing with the Yale Slavic Chorus (www.yaleslavicchorus.com).  At one point, during our last year at Yale, the Chorus was hired to sing at a private dinner hosted by the University President for two special guests: Prince Aleksandr of Serbia and his spouse, Princess Katharine of Greece.  These two royals have been living in the UK, in exile from their home countries for the past 20 years or so.  Their countries don't totally pay attention to the facts that they still have royal families.  When we sang "Ja Urani Jutros Rano," in a quietly-lit sitting room, the Prince and Princess seated before us, the Princess started to weep.  

Ja Urani Jutros Rano tells the story about a boy out walking in the hills, where he meets a girl who greets him sorrowfully: "Leave me be; I am miserable.  I have a true love far away, in a foreign land."

When the Prince and Princess heard us sing this song, they wept for longing their homes -- for those hills, and for the sound of these ancient, heart-carried songs, and the voices of women who would sing them without ever thinking they might one day be swept up far away, unable to return.  We are all back i