And Quiet Flows the Don (original 1928; edition 2009)

Not with the plough is our dear, glorious earth furrowed,
Our earth is furrowed with the hoofs of horses;
And our dear, glorious earth is sown with the heads of cossacks:
Our gentle Don is adorned with youthful widows:
Out gentle father Don is blossomed with orphans;
The waves of the gentle Don are rich with fathers' and mothers' tears.

"O thou, our father, gentle Don!
Oh why dost thou, gentle Don, flow so troubledly?"
"Ah, how should I, the gentle Don, not flow troubledly?
From my depths, the depths of the Don, the cold springs beat;
Amid me, the gentle Don, the white fish leap."

-Old Cossack Songs

The Melekhov farm was right at the end of Tatarsk village.

And again after a little while, under the mound, right by the shrine, in the shaggy shelter of the old wormwood a female bustard laid nine speckled, smokey-blue eggs and sat on them, warming them with her body, protecting them with her glossy wings.