An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/Two Cossacks
Two Cossacks
(Tilsit, June 25th, 1807)
Walking there with the Tsar, our Little Father,—
’Tis He.—
—But our priest said he’s a hairy fellow,
And that this godless devil is decked with horns.—
How could the orthodox Tsar walk with the devil?—
And the priest told us ’twas against the devil,
And for the Tsar and for the true belief.
Now Uncle Mitaj has his head torn off,
And bayonets ripped Sasha and Petka open,
And someone hacked my brother Ivan in twain,—
Then tell me, O thou man of deepest wisdom,
Wherefore all this? Why were we driven from home,
Driven for hundreds of versts to foreign lands,
Afar to bayonets, cannons, muskets? Wherefore
All this, since He is not the devil, and now
Our Gosudar, our sovereign orthodox,
Consorts with him, as with a kindred brother?—
Stripped of the poppy-flowers. All this was done
Because they could not thus converse together,
And they at last can thus converse together,
Because ’twas done. Thou sheep’s-brain, is it for me
To give thee learning? Hold thy peace,
Open thine eyes, see with what courtesy
The mighty of the world converse together,
And pray in seemly wise to God the Father
And to his saints, that for long time to come,
They may not, to the harm of our well-being,
Kindle their anger one against the other.—
He (1921)
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 1942, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 82 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 |
