An Anthology of Modern Bohemian Poetry/When years have passed shall I still bewail thee
Stanislav Karel Neumann (b. 1875).
WHEN YEARS HAVE PASSED SHALL I
STILL BEWAIL THEE
Young and of subtle charm thou wert slain
By worthy fathers
Weary of virtuous spouses,
And their sons
Taking their fill of the world.
In the white passage of the lazar-house
Vanished thy body;
None clamoured: "Murderers!"
'Mid their tranquil enjoyment.
When years have passed shall I still bewail thee!
Thou hadst a lustrous eye, and tresses of dusky azure,
And blood that in part was derived from barbarian Huns.
When years have passed shall I still bewail thee!
But not because it was here denied thee
To find the hearth of some fat-paunched boor,
That thou might'st bear to him children, laughing, thriving.
Rather abiding longer within this haunt of the devil would I behold thee,
Avenging thyself, yea, direly avenging thyself,
With the venom of thine embrace avenging thyself,
Even upon their children’s children avenging thyself,
For thee and for thy sisters,
For us and for our brothers,
And for all the stock of the disinherited children of Satan avenging thyself
Upon the protected caste
Of God-fearing, privileged
Citizens.
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 1947, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 76 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, 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 |
