Dream Tales and Prose Poems/Poems in Prose/Necessitas-Vis-Libertas!
NECESSITAS—VIS—LIBERTAS!
A BAS-RELIEF
A tall, bony old woman, with iron face and dull, fixed look, moves with long strides, and, with an arm dry as a stick, pushes before her another woman.
This woman—of huge stature, powerful, thickset, with the muscles of a Hercules, with a tiny head set on a bull neck, and blind—in her turn pushes before her a small, thin girl.
This girl alone has eyes that see; she resists, turns round, lifts fair, delicate hands; her face, full of life, shows impatience and daring. . . . She wants not to obey, she wants not to go, where they are driving her . . . but, still, she has to yield and go.
Necessitas—Vis—Libertas!
Who will, may translate.
May 1878.