An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/The Burial
The Burial
At the age of sixty-nine-she was ailing for many a day—
On Monday, September 15th, passed away.
Six candles are burning, and the organ’s gloomy sound
Escorts our grief along the path of the cross around
The church, behind which are field and high-road, and trees are growing there,
From the coffin to them we can ransom ourselves
Only with the plainest prayer:
Thy will be done.
The dark-clad mourners tread,
Here greatest pity is for the living who are weeping for the dead,
Here the heavens are sundered in our gaze, and have bedecked the dead with their pall,
O hearse, O gilded mound, you are too small, too small,
O coffin, you are too empty,
For she who is dead steps forth from your domain,
On the ribbons of the funeral wreaths she comes to life again,
Fluttering on the white ribbons with the living names
The whole world she can span:
Jiří, Karel, Jaroslav, Věra, Dagmar, Zora, Radovan:
Her grandchildren.
To the burial-place we pass on our way.
The corn in the garners already is placed,
And we garner it again to-day.
Naught in this world is turned to waste,
Nor ever shall be so.
The garnered corn to bread doth grow.
The eldest grandson meditates:
When drop by drop the blood from your body was shed;
Grant that I die not as you in a forlorn bedchamber, for I
As a soldier with bayonet and rifle would die,
Wounded to the heart by a bursting shell.
The struggle’s unrest
Is my quest
To gain the glory of this world.
Heaven is a morsel of this earth with its everyday folk;
Sing not, O choir, over the grave a canticle lack-lustre with dole;
Sing rather as gardeners
At the seed-time sing.
If I weep, I weep not for the dead. None there be.
If I suffer, it is grief for the living that suffers in me.
Only the coffin we bury,
Only the name we bury
Of hearts which lived righteously.
O garden green,
On you the most precious seeds
Have ever been
Sown for life’s sake,
The Grievous Hour (1922)
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.
| Original: |
This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
|---|---|
| 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 |
