An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/The Poet

For works with similar titles, see Poet.

The Poet

STEPPING across graves I come to living men,
That I may learn what sets their hearts aglow.

Mornings are my delight, that I may arouse.
I wait till evening for ny burials.

My world appears remote from human-kind,
My dreams being shaped on the loftiest range of thought.
A world of imagined towers and mountain-tops
Loving but heights and horizons, abysses of despair.

My world looms forth from solitudes and is poised above earth,
Where, a breathless onlooker, I have stayed my flight
On boughs of a tree which towers gigantic heavenwards.

Once, an outcast demon, I toppled from on high.
Yet am I grateful; still do I set astir
My singed wings. Still is my defiance not quenched.
In peril and amazement I delight.
Often do I descend that I may hearken
How perish hearts of men. And I am stirred
By the earliest greeting of those aroused at morn
And by the last words of those perishing at eve.

I long to incite men to mighty acts of daring,
To hound slavery from cages, those dancing sadly
On market-places at nightfall, when the lamps flare sootily,
To the music of hurdy-gurdies, to the laughter of lovers,
Sacrificing to their lusts in darkened copses,
While traders count the profits, coin by coin.
I long to open a little the vent-holes for
The age-old sorrows which ferment and seethe,
That ’tis a wonder they burst not the iron clamps,
When the guardians of mankind deem themselves safe.

I mould my words, snatched from the clutch of gods,
Upon the glowing gold of the noontide sun.

And I await the day, await the hour.
Daring Ventures (1906)

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 1928, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 96 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