An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/Prophets
Prophets
In earthquake (when clouds of strange patterns
Wail in anger, wounded by lightnings from their own depths,
And fire, which in a thousand hidden caverns dreamt of its glory,
Shall stir to avenge the age-long captive,
And with all its tongues shall shriek forth thy name,
And the sun shall change its known guise which it displayed unto ages)
Shall arrive, unperceived, thine envoys,
Conquerors of thy kingdom.
Shall they hearken unto thy sacred breath,
Which shall quench radiance for mortals, but blazing of worlds
Shall fan to a white-heat;
Wherein blossoms stir not, when it whirls in their depths,
Yet age-old crags it shatters like morsels of fragrant bread,
For delicate lips of tarrying life.
Their voice, clutched by whirlwind of time, shall waft behind them,
Sweet as fragrance behind a rose-bearer, bitter as torchsmoke,
And most secret thoughts of their own, terrified by omniscience,
Shall they hear above them chanting in starry firmaments,
Beneath them in fiery and secret muteness amid depths of earth,
Antiphonies of lustre and night-time.
Of the curse resting on the brotherhood of souls
And sundering speech of the builders; and their love
From age unto age roves above earth,
Like summer from settlements, whither vertical sunrays endlessly beat.
New fruit is yielded by trees of the earth,
Engrafted shoots from their secret gardens;
But their hopes, apt for such lofty flights and songtunes
Build their nests on a level with earth,
Like nightingales.
Shall darken their sun; like a trickling wound in the heart of a lover
Their lustre shall change into blood; and before their gazes
It shall spread regions of coming ages,
Glittering with new star-clusters.
Myriads before them shall stir at thy breath, like billows
Of eternal ocean, which in broad gulfs laves upon earth
And changes its continents through the ages.
Across the snow, wherewith secret of time conceals thy winter-crops,
Bare-footed, as exiles, they shall pass, and their thoughts, an untold multitude,
In a thousand footprints shall bleed,
At every step.
In escape shall they flee across burning cities of coming ages,
As on a fiery carpet, outspread upon stairs
Of thy sacred height. And each of their ponderings,
Which turns back in compassion,
With knowledge shall stiffen to stone.
And new and new clouds of the ages shall thunder before them:
Lightnings which fling livid pallor on faces of reapers.
Fateful impact of daring vessels in mist.
Roar of a throng upon sites of secret buildings,
Whose scaffoldings, blackly hidden, are sullied with blood,
Places of execution!
O songs of passion, which they hear ascending from flames,
Glances of future sufferers, their magical contact,
Kisses opening new eternities of radiance and sorrow.
A single soul’s frenzy, upon whose glittering billows
Earth is asway. Ages suffering, centuries perishing,
Undying,
Bearing burden of all star-clusters,
Perceiving its own glory.
Mastheads of fleets of coming destinies,
Which sailed forth at this world’s creation,
From secret coasts they behold approaching,
The oars yet hidden by curve of the sea-level afar:
And impatience. And they, who have known not bliss,
In bliss shall awake from their vision,
And grief alone worthy of their strength, shall clutch their souls:
Grief of time delaying.
Too slowly earth revolves for them, too slowly do mornings arise,
And too long do noons repose in shadows of trees,
Amid reapers.
They crave to soar with speed of light through the ages,
To possess a thousand hearts with whose blood to nourish their rapture,
And with flush like unto sunrise
And polar radiance and blazing of worlds
Countenance of their love!
All souls to gladden with wine which yielded them such festive
Sorrow and rapture,
And which gushes from a single spring
In concealment,
And unto the whole universe sheds fragrance of happy earth,
Only unto its children for whole ages yet
Vainly!
Temple Builders (1899)
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, 1930. The longest-living author of this work died in 1929, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 95 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.
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| Translation: |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930. 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 54 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 |
