An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/Dirge

For works with similar titles, see Dirge.

JAKUB DEML

(b. 1878)

Dirge

MY secret workshop nightward glimmered,
On the lone hills the tempest sighed;
Of a sudden the furnace ceiling-high shimmered:
At my doorway someone cried.

Enter, O Unknown, come nigh unto me here.
What is the grief thou bearest in this night of fear?

Three days, three nights I have wandered thus;
Now God be merciful unto us.

Wherefore this dread, wherefore these throes?
Come, recount to me thy woes.

Nay, ’tis thine that now are nigh.
Their messenger, their voice am I.

Enough grim tidings hast thou told.
My handiwork is waxing cold.

What thine hand would fain have wrought
Now to haze and smoke is brought.

Speak! My only friend has died?
Naught but the midnight chime replied.

The fire was quenched. Stirless the pendulum stands.
What I had wrought fell from my hands.
Footprints (1919)

This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.

Original:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1961, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 63 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

Translation:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1970, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 54 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse