An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/Siberian Night

JANKO JESENSKÝ

(b. 1874) (Slovak)

Siberian Night

THE sultry hut is filled with a dense gloom:
Through the thick ice on the window facing the light
Gleams and tarries the Siberian night
Stubbornly with snow and sheen of the moon.

Behind the bare knoll morning is still asleep,
Still are her eyelids closed, still does her face
Nestle against her pillowed resting-place
So stainless and so pale upon yonder steep.

I crouch with my Chinese cloak about me spread
And wait for the steely gaze of morn to appear,
From which the night will hasten away in fear;

The moon pales in the sudden clutch of dread,
And each prisoner still lower droops his head,
While hope disheartened limps away from here.
(Berezovka, Feb. 4th, 1916)
From Captivity (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 1945, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 79 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.

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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