Page:An Anthology of Modern Bohemian Poetry.pdf/86

 

Yea, joy there is. Young hearts with love it fills,
Faces with radiance, souls with song, and flowers
With dew with reconciliation ills.

————

Life is a book, read joyously in sooth,

When every page speaks fragrance to our soul,
And radiance, warmth, sweet tenderness to youth.

————

Some ever from afar behold their joys,

Whose life is but a leaf torn from a book,
That in the fire a maiden's hand destroys.

 

"Men and Women" (1893).

 

Ant. Klášterský (b. 1866).

 

THE CLOISTER GARDEN

 

O'er Prague the setting sun lies low,
Darker the cloister garden doth grow.

Darker and darker beneath our gaze;
The nuns still wander along its ways.

The bell has chimed and chillness is spread,
Thro' the gloomy gate has the last one sped.

The desolate garden, O child, behold,
To the song of the crickets the gloom doth enfold.