Modern Czech Poetry/Brooding
1. DUMA.
Jen několik let—kosti vykopají
a pohodí je někde v kostnici,
kdy písní mojich zvuky též se stají,
jak v háji zpěv, když zmizí slavíci.
Zda potom někdo vezme prádnou lebku
jak Hamlet ve svou chvějící se dlaň
a zahledí se mých dum na kolebku,
jež přírodě svou zaplatila daň?
Zda vyčte myšlenek tam různých sledy,
muk lásky pozná a všech strastí byt,
zda poví mu ten čelisti kruh bledý,
že i to čelo vavřín chtělo mít?
Zda otáže se, kde ten duch, jenž plaše
chtěl perutí až k hvězdám povzletnout?
Eh! přeříká snad kousek otčenáše
a sinou lebku hodí v tmavý kout!
*1. BROODING.
A few more years,—and they will drag my bones,
And let them in a charnel-house be shed,
After my melodies have hushed their tones,
Mute as a grove, whence nightingales have fled.
Will someone then the empty skull upraise
Upon his trembling hand, with Hamlet's view
Amid the cradle of my dreams to gaze,
That has to nature paid its final due?
Will he mark out each divers track of thought,
The irk of love, and all the anguish there?
And will the pallid jawbone tell him aught
Of laurels that this brow was fain to wear?
And will he wonder where the soul may lag
That once urged on its wings to starward flight?
Pooh! He will mumble forth some pious tag,
And cast the livid skull away from sight!
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1970, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 53 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse