An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/The Arts

For works with similar titles, see Art.

The Arts

O MOURNFUL graveyard, where souls of the mighty dream,
And throngs of glistening shades pass age-long to the tomb,
Glowings of mystic fires, like to a polar gleam,
Upon thy portals loom.

Sleeping, I near thy radiance ’mid my garden-close,
Where night has flooded, like a darksome ocean-bay,
A field of perished flowers, which phosphor-livid glows
In lustre’s blue array.

Trembling of silenced words, quenched passions’ misty veil—
Time with grey woof has spanned amid thy mute despair;
Deep sighs of perished throngs across thy seed-plots trail
And moulder in thine air.

Beneath a vault aloof, upon a tiny shrine,
Where o’er a marble city towers thy metal fane,
Eternal One, durst I, marred with blood-lusts of mine,
My mass for Thee ordain?

And soak the bread of life in wine of rapture, on
The altar-table, which conceals in hallowed stead
’Neath roses of my dreams and lights of orison
The relics of Thy dead?

Or will Thy body yield marvel of blood, perchance,
Vine-like, in golden goblet, heavy for my weak hands,
And with angelic lustre wilt Thou light my glance,
Born amid twilight lands?

Upon my pyre of days I bid Thee: Torture, burn,
In sorrow’s prison-house blanch Thou my face as snow;
Grief to Thy fragrant incense-glory will I turn
’Mid song-craft’s pulsing glow.

And form of ecstasy, as gleaming flowers unfolded,
Flung by love’s ferment, I on dark-tinged floors shall heap,
With bliss of maiden forms, where perfumes, bosom-moulded,
’Mid alabaster sleep.

In glowing pillar’s guise my soul shall skywards grasp,
And coffined in my strength, sleeping I shall abide,
When as a smitten priest, I in the secret’s clasp
Kneel at Thine altar’s side.

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 1929, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 95 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