An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/Ostrava

For other English-language translations of this work, see Ostrava.

Ostrava

A HUNDRED years mutely I dwelt in the pit,
A hundred years coal I hewed,
In a hundred years my shoulders were knit
Stiff as if iron-thewed.

Coal-dust upon my eyes is smeared,
The red from my lips has escaped,
And from my hair, from eyebrows, from beard,
Coal clings icicle-shaped.

Bread with coal is my labour’s prize,
From toil unto toil I go.
Palaces by the Danube arise
From my blood and my sweat they grow.

A hundred years I was mute in the mine,
Who’ll requite me those hundred years?
When my hammer made them a threatening sign
They each began with their jeers.

I should keep my wits, in the mine I should stay,
For my masters still I should moil,—
I swung the hammer,—blood flowed straightway
On Polská Ostrava’s soil.

All ye in Silesia, all ye, I say,
Whether Peter your name be or Paul,
Your breasts ye must gird with steely array
And thousands to battle must call;

All ye in Silesia, all ye, I say,
Ye lords of the mines below;
The mines flare and reek, and there comes a day,
A day when we’ll take what we owe.

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 1958, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 66 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