An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/The Pitman

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

The Pitman

I DIG, under the earth I dig;
Boulders glittering like the scales of a serpent I dig;
Beneath Polská Ostrava I dig.

My lamp is quenched, upon my brow has fallen
My hair, matted and clammy with sweat;
My eyes are shot with bitterness and gall;
My veins and my skull are clouded with vapour;
From beneath my nails gushes forth crimson blood;
Beneath Polská Ostrava I dig.

The broad hammer I smite upon the pit;
At Salmovec I dig,
At Rychvald I dig, and at Pětvald I dig.

Hard by Godula my wife freezes and whimpers,
Famishing children weep at her bosom;
I dig, under the earth I dig.

Sparks flash from the pit, sparks flash from my eyes;
At Dombrová I dig, at Orlová I dig,
At Poremba I dig and beneath Lazy I dig.
Above me overhead rings the clatter of hoofs,
The count is riding through the hamlet, the countess with dainty hand
Urges on the horses and her rosebud face is smiling.

I dig, the mattock I upraise;
My wife, livid-faced, trudges to the castle,
Craving for bread, when the milk has dried up in her breasts.

Good-hearted is my lord,
Of yellow masonry is his castle,
Beneath the castle is dinning and bursting the Ostravice.
By the gates two black bitches are scowling.

Wherefore she went to the castle to pester and beg?
Grows rye on my lord’s field for the drab of a pitman?
At Hrušov I dig and at Michalkovice.

What will betide my sons, what will betide my daughters,
On the day when they drag out my corpse from the pit?
My sons shall go on digging and digging,
At Karvinna digging;
And my daughters,—how fares it with daughters of pitman?

How if one day I should fling my accursed lamp into the pit,
And stiffen my bended neck,
Clench my left hand and stride forth and onward,
And in a sweeping curve from the earth to the skyline upwards
Should upraise my hammer and my flashing eyes,
Yonder beneath God’s sunshine!

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