Modern Czech Poetry/The sentimental carousers
1. SENTIMENTÁLNÍ PIJÁCI.
Příteli melancholiku,
druhu mé duše tulácké,
pod kterým nebem shasnou kdysi
životy naše žebrácké?
Pohádek našich stříbro, šeď
kdy rozstříkne se, v kterou zem?
Kdy hudby, jež jsme milovali,
posledním vzdychnou akkordem?
Oh, dávná láska procitá
zas echy v strunách srdce. Dost
Na zdraví sobě! Snům a světu!
Ať rekviem má minulost.
Ve zlatém víně ztopíme
tyranský rozmar pamětí.
A zpívat budem, zapomenem
lásku i vztek i prokletí.
„Torso života“ (1901).
1. THE SENTIMENTAL CAROUSERS.
Comrade thou of melancholy,
Thou, my vagrant spirit's friend,
Underneath what sky hereafter
Will our lives of beggary end?
Our annals, silvery and drab,
Within what land, when will they wane?
When will the music that we cherished
Be wafted in a last refrain?
O, bygone love an echo rouses
In the heart's chords again. No more!
Hail to ourselves, to earth, to dreaming!
A requiem to the days of yore.
In golden wine the tyrant mood
Of memory we shall immerse.
And we shall sing, and shall forget
Our love, our fury and our curse.
“Torso of Life” (1901).
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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