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MODERN BOHEMIAN POETRY
Karel Toman (b. 1877).
SONG
By every stream, by every way,
The mournful poplars heaved a sigh;
What balm will sooth the heart, O say,
When painful memories are nigh?
Thy land converseth with the night
Within thy heart—know'st this distress?
Around thee wood and mountain-height,
Oh, unto whom would'st thou confess?
And women round with blossoms fare,
And they sing ditties that lament,
And in thy soul that is so bare,
With vanity the gloom is blent.
"The Melancholy Pilgrimage" (1906).
Jaroslav Vrchlický (pseudonym for Emil Frida, b. 1853).
AFTER THE RAIN
A strip of blue is on the sky-line gleaming,
And all the wood is fresh with pearls;
The stream that down the slope its waters hurls
With chatter and with mirth is teeming.
