An Anthology of Modern Bohemian Poetry/Moravian Village

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2608363An Anthology of Modern Bohemian Poetry — Moravian Village1912Petr Bezruč, translated by Paul Selver

MORAVIAN VILLAGE

The huts like white-plumed birds in bevies stud
The slope. The breeze with gentle breath scarce blows,
And sluggish as Moravian blood
The streamlet flows.

Upon their farms the peasants abide in content,
Somewhere away in Vienna the good emperor's life is spent;
Germans beneath the mountains and Jews in the cities throng.

In the black fields like a streak of pitch the rapeseed is laid,
And in the meadow there delves a flaxen-haired maid;
She knows that a bridegroom will come to fetch her ere long.

The lad of Moravia casts on his labour his gaze,
'Midst his toiling he scarce for the maid heaves a sigh;
He knows that ere long a wife to the threshold will hie,
And the marriage-feast will continue three nights and three days.

The burly peasant, ruddy and tanned,
On the townsfolk looks down with a touch of pride;

None may hound him away from his land,
But,
But betwixt here and the Beskyds the gulf is wide.

"Songs of Silesia" (1911).

 This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.

Original:

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 1958, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 65 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

Translation:

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