An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/Tractate on Patriotism
Tractate on Patriotism
Through childhood, boyhood, and my years of youth
With all sweet folly of first love, with all
First pangs, deceit and misery of it;
That one white township in the vale of Elbe
With dusky forests on the far horizon,
With its old castle, with its wild-grown park,
Its placid market-square, its church, that shaped
Outlandishly, peers forth with huddled tower
Across the country-side; billowy fields;
Avenued paths, the agony of God
Where crossroads meet; the meadow-lands that flank
Calm streams; our cherished hamlets round about;—
That nook of earth is all for which I crave
In the shrill streets of this afflicting city.
Yet rather is it craving for the years
Of youth I lived there. . . . Since the soul portrays
Fondly unto itself those places, craves
Piningly for them, while,—fond thing—it harbours
A trembling hope that by returning thither
It may bring back its years of youth . . . I know
That I would likewise love another place
If I had passed elsewhere my years of youth. . . .
This is my native land. Naught else, I lack
Aptness to worship that terrestrial
Concept, which diplomats have glibly framed.
In their bureaus; which pedagogues to us
Imparted out of atlases; the which
Must needs, as each and all terrestrial
Concepts, to-morrow, maybe, shrivel or expand,
According as upon some battle-field,
In dreadful strife which is not our affair,
More striplings fall on that side or on this!
That temple of idolaters, wherein
Dreamers devoutly cast themselves to earth,
And in a frenzy beat their breasts because
They too are Czechs nay, even as elsewhere.
Our annals are a file of dreadful deeds
(By us accomplished and by us endured)
Of recreant men, of surging passion-throes,
Betrayals, dominations and enslavements;
And men of light there were, who then became
Clear-ringing currency of daily catchwords
For tricksters of to-day, here as elsewhere.
Nor do I vaunt me of our own days. We
Than others are no whit the better . . .
We are but palterers and caitiffs; where
Power is, there do we bend our necks to it
In slavish wise; wherefore are we abased
By evil lords. Time-serving braggarts we,
Testy and witless, laughing-stocks amid
Our pride, and palsied in vain peevishness.
Felons we have, dotards and pillagers
And hucksters dealing in pure love of country,
And a mere handful of the men who are
Ever untainted and downright,—but these
All nations have elsewhere,,—ye gods, is this
To be, perchance, our fountain-head of pride?
My country, for I have none, know none, nor
See cause for loving one. . . .
A German, Turk, Gypsy, or negro, if
I had been born elsewhere. My Czechdom is
The portion of my life which I do feel
Not as delight and bliss, but as a solemn
And inborn fealty. My native land
Is within me alone; and this will I
Trim round at no man’s beck, nor give it tinge
To match with fashion’s daily whim; nor shall
They rob me of it; when above my tomb
The grass has grown, it shall go living on
In other souls,—and if, some day to be,
In them it wither, then and only then
Shall it be lifeless, as old Kollár sang.
For Czechdom as I feel it in myself.
And if I ever pride me on it, then
I pride me only on my life. . . .
Golgotha (1902)
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 1942, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 82 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 |
