38o A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE " Thus then did kiss my love : the forehead downward to the chin, then
" On this
in
I
from shape of a cross from
the
voyage twice
I
one
little ear to the other.
of her
reached the little rose-garden
lips,
through which my soul enters into hers."
Of the sonnets of the second canto I shall quote one in which Kollar's enthusiasm for " Slavia," the Slav world, which he distinguishes from the goddess " Sldva," He writes : —
appears most clearly.
" Slavia, Slavia memory
!
hundred
Thou name of sweet sound but of bitter times divided and destroyed, but yet more
honoured than ever.
"From
Ural Mountains
summit of the Carpathians, from the deserts near the equator to the lands of the setting sun, thy kingdom extends. " Much hast thou suffered, but ever hast thou survived the evil the
to the
of thy enemies, the evil ingratitude also of thy sons. " While others have built on soft ground, thou hast
deeds
thy throne on the
ruins of fuany
established
centuries.^'
One of the sonnets of the third book contains a curious prophecy of the future greatness of the Slav Kollar writes : — race. " What will
us Slavs a century hence 1 manners, as the floods of a deluge,
become
of
what of all
will extend Slavic their strength in every direction. " That language, which the Germans falsely believed to be but Europe
?
a dialect
fit for
slaves,
will
be
heard even u'nder the ceilings of
and in the mouths of our very enemies. " By means of the Slav language science will
palaces
dress, the customs, Seine
and on
the
the songs
be the
Our
fashion on the
Elbe.
" Oh t had it but
when the Slavs " my tomb /
of our people will
be developed.
will
granted to me to be born at that time rule, or might at least then rise again from been
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