An Anthology of Modern Bohemian Poetry/From "New Gypsy Melodies"
Adolf Heyduk (b. 1835).
FROM "NEW GYPSY MELODIES"
(1897)
Hostess, a cup of wine, I pray,
From Debreczin I took my way;
By distant foot-paths I did fare,—
Lo, these fetters that I bear!
Our masters gave to me these bands,
They fettered last my feet and hands;
That, when gleamed the star of morn,
I to the gallows might be borne.
Weakly were the fetters wrought,
By my strength asunder brought;
Why should such fetters be my plight,
For scanty bread and scanty right?
The gypsy from these bonds shall raise
A sharp defence; there come the days,
That we ourselves with spurs shall clank,
Like the man of lofty rank.
I struggled, by a savage love laid low,
Burn me, destroy me with thine eyes' bright glow,
Let on me prey a swarm of sighs like fire,
And pierce my bosom with its own desire.
Thy breath is wafted like a breeze in spring,
Thy breath is fragrant, and doth rapture bring;
My love, which thy laments would fain allay,
Like to young wine doth surge in pearly spray.
Like to a goblet filled with foamy longing,
Within my bosom gleaming waves are thronging;
Twine round me thy pale tresses in a flood,
Thou still'st the fervour of my flaming blood.
A bounding desert-steed, my passion, cries:
O that thy breath would like the samum rise;
O that thine arms might bring me to my end,
E'en as the hurricanes the oak-trees rend.
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.
| Original: |
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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| Translation: |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929. 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 53 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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