The Merry Cemetery in Sapanta

Last night we stayed in Sapanta up near the Ukrainian Border. Sapanta is best known for the Merry Cemetery. Stan Ion Patras carved, painted and added the sometimes irreverent verses. 

Here I lie to take my rest
They call me Gogea George
Green leaf of Dogwood
I was a young man
I liked the bicycle
Since I was a child
But here’s what happened
I was slashed by a knife
And died on the spot 
Death you have an ugly name
For you carried me off young
And my life you took away
At age 22 D. 2942



Under this heavy cross
Lies my poor mother-in-law
Three more days she would have lived,
I would die, and she would read this cross
You, who are here passing by
Do not wake her up please try
Cause’ if she comes back home
She’ll criticize me more. 
That she’ll not return from hell. 
Stay here, dear mother-in-law!

This is where I rest
Pop Grigore is my name
I loved my tractor the most
And drowned my sorrows in the bottle
All my life I was miserable and sad
Because my father left me when I was just a child
Maybe this was my fate
To die young.