Flora Pauline Wilson Kopta

“ Oh, the peaceful, quiet village, nestling midst the Bohemian hills,
With its humble straw-thatched hamlets clustering round the little church.
On one side the great lake stretches, fed by many bright mountain rills,
On the other side are forests, pine and cedar, silvery birch.
I can see it all before me, as I left it in my boyhood;
Left my parents, left my village, to go soldiering in the world.
Fifty years have come and faded—still the cross stands where it stood,
Only I am changed and weary, strange that this was once my world. ”

“ Leave him in peace, my son, he is a monk.”
“A monk!” said Rubens, “Oh, my father, say,
What convent hides the man that painted this?
A genius has no right to turn away,
And scorn the fame that would attend his steps;
I shall go to him, whisper in his ear,
‘Fame beckons to thee, friend, come leave thy cell.’
And should he tremble, and draw back in fear,
I will assure him of the pope’s good will. ”

“ The monk then told him, from his mind well stored,
Things of the faith, for which the poor boy sighed.
And so they met and conversed many days,
Until the priest said one morn, “Come, my son,
I will baptize thee, since it is thy will,
But thou must come and see me often still.”
“My father,” said the child, “you know God’s ways,
There must be struggle, ere the crown be won.”
“Come live with us, my child,” the monk replied,
“If aught you dread before your father’s wrath.”
“My heart misgives me,” said the boy. “I fear,
I know not what—ah, well, the Lord is near.” ”

“ Farewell, then, my native village, and the hamlet where I was born,
Fifty years ago I left you in the hope of winning fame,
And I leave you now, forever, famous, crippled, and most forlorn,
Having spent my life’s best hours just to win a glorious name. ”

“ Though changed, that Prague is still the same.
Brave land, so crushed that still can live
And teach thy sons the way to fame;
Strong land that still has strength to give
Men that no enemy can tame. ”

“ Trusting that my book may do something toward making Bohemian literature better known, I send my poor little book out into the wide world of intellectual thought, feeling sure that all will sympathize with my effort, and that some may even feel pleasure in reading the songs of long ago. ”

“ The servant led on, and the monks came behind,
“Reverend fathers,” he said, “the kitchen is warm;
Come sit by the fire, and eat to your fill—
’Tis better than straying without in the storm.
Were our master at home, you would sup in the hall,
But gladly we’ll give you the best that we can.”
“My son,” said the monk, “we are easy to please,
Who follow the footsteps of ‘The Son of Man.’”
They sit in the kitchen, one young and one old,
And eat of the food that the servants have brought. ”

“ Her tortured spirit might find rest;
Then laid him down to sleep in peace,
With holy feelings in his breast.
At midnight, at the stroke of twelve,
He woke up with a sudden fear;
The moonlight flooded all his room,
And lo! poor Bertha’s ghost was near. ”

“ And oft they sang, that life is fleet,
And love as strong as death.
At length the eldest one said, “Wait
Here is a splendid tree that fate
Has thrown into our way.
We’ll cut it down and make ourselves
Two harps this sunny day. ”

“ He may neither record the struggles of his ancestors for liberty, nor dream of the day when self-government shall give to his country whatever of happiness she is capable of enjoying. Love, of all the passions which he is permitted to sing, is that which allows the widest scope to his imagination and love is the ever-ruling subject of his verse. And surely their popular poets have treated this subject with exquisite tenderness and effect.” These are the opinions and words of two Englishmen, who trod before me the thorny path of Bohemian literature. ”

“ That freedom of thought and expression which opens to the poet the great expanse of space and time the whole field of the past and the future which allows him to revel in all that is delightful in recollection, and in all that is beautiful in anticipation is denied to the minstrel of Bohemia. ”

“ There is truth in the observation, that history and heroism have furnished few subjects for the Bohemian national songs, and, he says, is the more remarkable when they are compared or contrasted with those of other Slavonian races, especially the Servian and the Russian. But how should such songs exist or rather if they ever existed, how should they be long preserved in a state of society where no man dares to be a Bohemian? ”

“ The sinful soul that wept:
“Some sins you must have thought of,
And prayed for, ere you slept?”
“Alas! alas! I sinful
Have nothing I can show,
Except I sometimes tended
The sick ones in their woe,
And gave a little water
To those down-stricken low.” ”

“ But still his friends said: “Alas!
We much misgive us of that peace.”
“Whom should I fear then? Those who kill
The body, but have no more power
Over the soul that triumphs still,
And conquers in the dying hour?” ”

“ Beyond the convent’s silent walls,
Oh, never more shall I stray,
No earthly voice shall haunt me more,
When I humbly kneel to pray.
Heaven’s love will fill my broken heart,
The world will have passed away. ”

“ Ye devilish tempters, that but seek out strife.
Heaven breaks upon my view, should earth awake
One vain regret? Nay, I am glad to die
A martyr for my land, and my faith’s sake;
Christ will reward me; ’tis to Him I fly. ”

“ To inherit his broad land;
And you come here but to question
If detection is at hand.
Do you dream to cheat a wizard,
As you cheated that poor lad?
Yes, detection dogs your footsteps,
You shall see the murdered lad. ”

“ And at the present time the people of Great Britain are for the most part in a similar state of ignorance with regard to the literature of Bohemia, scarcely believing indeed that it has any literature at all, and utterly at a loss to account for that great intellectual and religious revolution, which, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, shook the power of Rome to its foundation, and animated a Slavonic people of only four millions to maintain successfully a single-handed conflict against the Papacy and the German empire for full two hundred years. ”

“ And their letters came so seldom, telling of their homely pastimes;
Of the endless toil and trouble that weigh down the peasant heart,
That it struck me with strange new wonder, like some old forgotten chime
Wafted to us in our labor from the far-off ancient mart. ”

“ The learned Rabbi sadly said,
“For the crying sins of Israel,
See our little ones are dead.
’Twas revealed me in a vision,
All our dearest ones must die,
Till some woman gives her darling,
Gives him up without a sigh. ”

“ Ah, me! the hours passed so fleet,
And we were very young.
My mother, with her evil eye,
She soon found out the reason why
I would not do her will,
And gather ’neath the moon’s bright beam
The plants that work out ill. ”

“ No earthly flag, but this the Chalice,
Shall lead us on, in battle’s roar;
I am no noble, but a friend
Whose right it is to go before.
Take horses, weapons, to your fill—
Come, let us march against the foe. ”

“ And I look around my chamber,
Stored with books and parchments rare;
And my heart is sick of knowledge,
And I wish that I was there,
Where earth's thirst is quenched for aye,
And night turns to endless day. ”

“ Have walked in my own light;
The world and all its pleasures,
They were my sole delight;
Alas! I am most sinful,
Most sinful in my sight.”
“But say, some good work surely—
Some fasts you must have kept?” ”

“ Though all of us know the dead can arise,
They generally only the wicked deceive.”
“My children,” the monk said, “the living and dead
Are all in the hands of the Lord we adore.
Oh, pray that your sins be forgiven on earth,
Be nailed to the cross that our dear Saviour bore.”
The servant now led them to where they might rest
And sleep, if they chose, till the coming of day,
And when the sun rose, and the storm had been stilled,
With blessings and thanks the two monks went their way.
↑ This celebrated ghost is one of the most historical in Europe. ”

“ But lo! beneath dark Hradčan’s wall
The people stand, and listening hear
The anthem of their native land,
Played by a hand that knows no fear.
Then, white with rage, the king said, “Kill
The man that dares to play that lay.” ”

“ Never did you think of praying,
When you lay you down to slumber.
You have danced to sweetest music—
I must writhe in mortal anguish.
While your body sleeps there calmly,
I in hell am doomed to languish. ”

“ Ah, that would be a royal day—
Pile on, you fellows, quick, pile on.”
“Hush! hush!” the heralds trumpet loud,
“Our lord stands on the castle wall;
A nobler lord was never born,
Shout loud, you fellows by the wall.” ”

“ Yet I must say he painted well;
⁠The saints alone would bring him fame.
My boy had something new to tell
⁠And show me every time I came.
⁠Oh, give me peace, I said,
⁠Such things are not for you.
Go lead the life that you have led,
⁠In that be true. ”

“ Where the grasses wave.”
“Dead! my loved one, oh, tell me where
Lies my loved one, without compare?”
“’Tis a fair way that we took her,
Winding up the hill;
Where the youths trod there are pebbles,
You can see them still. ”

“ Thinking as I think to-day,
That we cannot wed, beloved one,
That our farewell we must say;
So I left the wreath unfinished,
Left unfinished to this day.
“They would force me to be married
To a youth I cannot love ”

“ John was very willful,
And he did not know his place.
One should leave kings all their pleasures,
And not blame them to their face.”
“Oh, thou God-forsaken creature!
Wilt thou judge the saints in light? ”

“ Nor were these examples confined only to those who had been openly concerned in the rebellion, for a mandate of more than inquisitorial severity was issued, commanding all landholders who had participated in the insurrection to confess their delinquencies, and threatening the severest vengeance if they were afterward convicted. This dreadful order spread general consternation; not only those who had shared in the insurrection acknowledged their guilt, but even the innocent were driven by terror to self-accusation ”

“ His father’s words they seemed to hurt,
⁠Though, heaven knows, he meant no harm.
⁠The boy would flush with pain,
⁠At every angry tone;
I’ve often watched him through the lane
⁠Walk off alone.
A boy like that can never live,
⁠And thrive, in such a home as ours ”

“ Václav Budoec, well-known throughout the world
For learned books, that sought from out the maze
Of darkness still God’s banner to unfurl.
’Twas he who said with voice that knew no fear,
“I’d rather die than see my country die ”

“ In spite of this, Prague, and every city, even the castles and villages, hung out flags and illuminated the windows. I was asked to write a poem on the subject. Komenský was also Bishop of the Moravian Brethren, and exiled by Ferdinand II. with the other Protestants. The rector of the Prague University in his own right dismissed the students, and over five hundred paraded the streets, singing national songs. No parents sent their children to school, so that the teachers had to close the schools. ”

“ With two of them she went to church,
For the third she would not tarry.
The girl laughed loud, and dressed her hair,
For she had a mind to marry.
She thought in our little garden
There are plenty of roses fair ”

“ And the peasants love to tell
To naughty maids who will not fear,
The trouble that once befell
A girl who laughed at good St. John,
And her grandmother as well.
↑ * This legend is told in Tetschen, in the valley of the Kante, of a mountain that looks like a girl with a basket.—Chronik von Böhmen, Prague, 1852. ”

“ Oh, would I could go to the earth,
I would turn them from sin away.”
“Cease from thy fretting and worrying,
There are plenty to teach the way.
If the sisters choose to listen
They can also learn how to pray. ”

“ The bodies of the Kryspek family can still be seen in Kralovice. They were among those who preferred to die rather than wait to be perhaps tortured or driven from their country as beggars. As to the interview between Ferdinand and his confessor, it is historically true, and the whole account can be found in Histoire Guerre de Trente Ans, 1618 and 1648, par E. Charvériat Tome premier, p. 251, Paris, 1878. “Ferdinand passa sans repos la nuit qui précéda la signature. ”

“ Weeping, led her eldest born
To the Rabbi, saying sadly,
“Take him—let me die forlorn!
Better he should die for Israel,
If Jehovah will it so,
Than sink down beside the others,
Who are lying still and low.”
“Woman!” ”