Halek's Stories and Evensongs/Publisher's introduction to the edition of 1923
EVENSONGS
PUBLISHER’S INTRODUCTION
to the edition of 1923
The Evening Songs of Halek, like the song of the nightingale,” says Richard Badger, the Boston publisher, “sweetest in the quietness of eventide, are songs of youth and love, glorifying the spring, the flowers, the birds, the heavens and the stars, speaking to the human heart whether wrapped in happiness or sorrow. As effusions of feelings from a heart laden with love’s sweet passion, they appeal, above all, to the erotic spring of life. They are a bouquet of charming lyrics, full of light, colour, and fragrance, breathing spring, love, and poesy.”
Halek was born in 1835 and died in 1874. He commenced his literary career in 1858 and was the leader of the romantic and lyric school of Czech poesy. The present translation of the Evening Songs was published by Sir Walter Strickland in 1886, at York. Another translation by Dr. Joseph Stybr was published at Boston in 1920. It is not too much to claim for Strickland’s translation epic superiority over the American version. Compare Strickland’s lines:—
Spring flutters home from far away,
And Nature’s children, touched with longing,
Woke from their long, long winter’s dream,
To meet the sun are thronging.
The chaffinch flutters from the nest
Fresh children from their cottage sally,
And varied flowerets on the lees,
Scent all the neighbouring valley.
Bursts forth the leaf upon the bough,
And from the young bird’s throat are ringing
The first shy notes, and in young hearts
The germs of love are springing.
with Stybr’s version of the same song:—
The spring came flying from afar;
And from the young bird’s throat are ringingWith fresh desires all’s teeming;
All things pressed forward to the sun—
So long all had been dreaming!
The finches flew out of their nest
And children from their bowers,
And on the meadows sweetest scents
Breathe countless little flowers.
Young leaves press their way from the twigs
And from birds’ throats their voices,
And in the heart with budding love
The youthful breast rejoices.
There were two thoughts, two thoughts of God,Two thoughts in God, as stars were set
In heaven’s divine communion,
To shine of all the starry choir,
In fondest union.
Till one of them fell prone from heaven
And left its mate to languish,
Till God excused her, too, the skies
Pitying her anguish.
And many a night on earth they yearned—
Sad earth for their lost Eden,
Till once again they met as men,
As youth and maiden.
And looking in each others eyes
They recognized straightway,
And lived thrice blest till heaven to rest
Called one away.
Who dying out of earth recalled
Her love to heaven’s fair shore,
And God forbade it not, and now
They’re stars once more.
Stybr renders this beautiful poem after the manner of a catalogue recital, as follows:—
There were two thoughts, two thoughts of God,
Two stars beside each other,
And from all of the heaven’s stars
They most loved one another.
Once one of them fell to the earth—
The other pined in sorrow,
And God, touched by her grief and love,
Sent her down on the morrow.
They sought each other many nights
As lonely souls their Eden,
Until one day they chanced to meet
As a young man and maiden.
Their eyes met, and they recognized
Each other, tender-hearted,
And lived together in great bliss
Till one of them departed.
And when she died, she always called
And languished for the other,
Till God summoned the other one,
And they’re again together.
In appreciation of his services to Czech literature the translator has been made a citizen of the Czech Republic and has formally repudiated his baronetcy so far as the title applies to himself.
