Page:Cheskian Anthology.pdf/95

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84

Tu tráwka zelená tu stobarewné kwjtj

Klonj se stárowěkým pod dubem prosjce,

By aspón pěkné nožky qich se udolknuly;

I nebe proniknuto os wětau se njtj

A ljbost tagná geho zweseluge ljce.

Že krásné na ně oči gasnost wylinuly.

The simple lyrics which follow are those which are at this moment the most current among the bohemians. When peace succeeded to the agitations of the thirty years' war, it brought with it the old love and practice of music and song which characterise all the slavonian tribes. In these compositions are deeply stamped the habits and the position of the bohemian people. They are, almost without exception, modest, rural, and domestic. They recount no heroic deeds—assume no popular triumph—record no patriotic names. They are simple and pathetic developments of household sympathies—of the passion of love—or rivalry or jealousy—or of some of the infinite gradations of pain and pleasure which enter into the daily history of universal man. Some of them contain lessons of unobtrusive truth and wisdom: