Page:An Anthology of Modern Bohemian Poetry.pdf/91

 

As to the hive of the stranger the bees for the sweet-scented honey
Throng in a swarm and there queen-bee and young ones assail,
So in his own domain the master is serf, while his neighbour
Slyly crept in and his neck woefully bound with a chain.
Where in the verdant groves sang the beautiful daughter of Sláva,
Now are the song-loving lips silenced by deafening sounds;
Where in marble arose the halls of the thunderer Perun,
Now from the ruins distress shelter for cattle has made;
Where to the heavens uprose the old-famed towers of Arkona,
Yonder the stranger's foot tramples the fragments to dust.
There they bewail the ruins of Retra's temples, the famous,
Where they arose now dig lizard and serpent their nest.
Son of the Sláva who comes from this land to visit his brother,
Is to his brother unknown, presses not warmly his hand;
Strange is his language that comes from lips and from countenance Slavic,