Bohemian Poems, Ancient and Modern/The Lark

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
For other English-language translations of this work, see The Lark (Queen's Court Manuscript).

This poem comes from the so called Queen's Court Manuscript, alleged mediaeval work, whose real author was most probably Václav Hanka in the early 19th century.

3267994Bohemian Poems, Ancient and Modern — The LarkAlbert Henry Wratislaw

THE LARK.


ALL in a lordly garden ground
Is weeding hemp a maid,
A Lark addresses her and asks,
Why sad, and why afraid?

‘O how can I then joyful be,
Thou pretty little lark?
My lover they have ta’en from me,
And shut in dungeon dark.

O had I, had I but a pen,
A letter I would write,
And thou my messenger shouldst be,
And with it take thy flight.

But I’ve no paper, I’ve no pen,
To write a letter now,
So greet my love with song, and say,
That here I pine with woe.’

***