MODERN BOHEMIAN POETRY
69
"Half my life thou took'st from me;
What shall I do unto thee?"
"Let me from the stream be drawn,
And my yellow bough be sawn.
"The wooden strips thou then shalt take,
And thereof a cradle make.
"Lay the child therein to sleep,
That the poor mite may not weep
"When he lies in slumber there,
He shall find his mother's care.
"Plant the boughs by the water-side,
That no evil them betide.
"Till he to a stripling grown,
Frame a reed-pipe for his own.
"On the reed-pipe he will sing,
To his mother answering."
"The Garland" (1853).
