Jan Neruda

“ Youth that would ever bloom, but soon must ripened be.”
⁠Many a role in God’s wide world played I,
⁠And what I was, that I was glad to be.
Then Fate stepped in and said: “Time flies, old man, beware!
When you have reached the height of love divine,
Forcefully tear her lifeless lips from thine,
You live, and in your heart her dying image bear.
Though longing, while the frosts of scorn rise high.
Alone traverse life’s storm-swept, tossing sea.” ”

“ Again there was silence; we all felt an unspeakably sweet emotion. Every one was conscious of a world of happiness within him which he longed to share with all the world. As we all understood what the others felt, none of us talked.
We had hardly noticed that the Greek had closed his sketch-book after about an hour’s work, and taken himself off with a slight acknowledgment of our presence. We remained. ”

“ It trots along and turns this way and that until at last Miss Mary says: “Wait, dear!” She takes the child by the hand and guides it between two graves. She takes down from an iron cross, the wreath, bleached by wind and weather, and hangs up the fresh one—made of black and white—in its place. Then she places her hand upon the cross and begins to pray. It would be too hard for her to kneel down. At first her eyes rest upon the withered grass and the grey earth, then she lifts her head. Her wide, pleasant face and blue eyes are looking into space. ”

“ Old weathered man, why stand you in the sleet?
The biting frost blows through your aged bones
And in your beard, the rain drops pearly stones.
Are you afraid to ask for a night’s retreat?
Surely there are good people on this earth
To whom true kindness is an inborn trait;
Who curse the world for its poverty and dearth
And the thankless poor, who rebel at their fate. ”

“ The father and mother were good-natured, fine people, the lover a handsome young fellow, of direct and refined manners. They had come to Prinkipo to spend the summer months for the sake of the daughter, who was slightly ailing. The beautiful pale girl was either just recovering from a severe illness or else a serious disease was just fastening its hold upon her. She leaned upon her lover when she walked and very often sat down to rest, while a frequent dry little cough interrupted her whispers. ”

“ The world’s poor knowledge, it will fade,
Like any white rose that doth blow.
And so the thought of death should not
Stab our poor weary human heart.
We live, and outlive, ’tis our lot
Examples to be, ’tis our part. ”

“ I make bold to say that in me you will find a husband who will try to make you happy. Only one thing I beg. Consider the offer. Four weeks from today I await the decision—not earlier, not later.
With most passionate devotion,
William Cibulka.
Miss Mary felt as if she had an attack of vertigo. She was in the thirties, and this was her first love letter. She had never thought of love, and no one had ever paid her any attention. Lightning darted through her head, blood pounded in her temples, and she breathed with effort. She was not in condition to formulate any sort of thought. ”

“ When several hours had passed, the sky had begun to take on the purple tint which makes the South so attractive, the mother reminded us that it was time to go in. We descended in the direction of the hotel, slowly but with buoyant steps, like children free from care.
We sat down in an open veranda in front of the hotel. We had no sooner settled down when we heard sounds of quarrelling and abuse below us. ”

“ Finally, after some hours, when the distance was hiding itself in a dusky violet hue, which in the South is so magically lovely, the mother urged us to make our way back. We arose and strolled down to the inn, our steps as free and elastic as those of children without a care in the world. ”

“ World! Master Poet! What meaning holds your Hymn?
All that within it dies, immortally lives on?
There is no beauty known that does not bloom in you,
There is no morn yet born that shines not in your dew. ”

“ WHAT’S A TEAR?
What’s a tear? It is a splendid garnet
Shining through the night with mystic light,
With its glare destroying night’s deep shadows
Whose oppresive fears it puts to flight.
What’s a tear? ”

“ A shroud of thoughts for when I fall
Exhausted with the strife.
Two shoes protrude from out the pack,
Their soles are strong and tried,
The hide for them came off the back
Of my relentless pride. ”

“ Has not a two-fold death separated my life from other people?”
And Mrs. Nocar wept and wept, although she was not listening to the dream for the first time, and she poured refreshing balm upon the grief filled heart of her friend.
The fact that Miss Mary never married is interesting. She was left an orphan early, and in possession of a comfortable two-storied house. She was not an ill-favored girl. Any one could see that today. She was tall—as only few women are—her blue eyes were good to look at, and her face, although a trifle too broad, was pleasant and the features were regular. ”

“ Each time I was attracted by a lovely girl of about eighteen years of age. Of slender figure, of full warm outlines, with loose black hair, cut just to the neck, an oval, smooth face, and bright eyes, she was indeed a beautiful young girl. Her eyes enchanted me. Liquid clear they were, as mysterious as the calm surface of water, yet so restless, recalling to you at once the words, “Sooner will a fire be satiated with wood and the sea with water than a beautiful-eyed maid will be satiated with men!” ”

“ One rose in bloom . . . one bud . . .
Yet this one is so beautiful
As if grown from human blood.
And while it grows, its petals spread
Their stirring blood-red stain,
This rose, my love of humankind . . ”

“ But you don't know men, Mitzerl! Such nobility does not last; pretty soon men throw everything to the wind and think only of themselves. Let it all rest, Mary. They'll talk it over together. Rechner is practical, but Cibulka—Cibulka is madly in love with you. Cibulka will surely come!”
Mary's eyes took on a dreamy expression. She believed her friend, and her friend believed her own words. ”

“ We all grew silent and sated our whole being with the prospect which savoured of paradise. The young Polish lady was lying on the turf with her head resting in her husband's lap. The pale oval of her delicate face gained a slight colour and tears suddenly began to flow from her blue eyes. ”

“ There is no struggle that your thunder does not feed,
No martyred hero known through whom you did not bleed.
There is no longing thought in which it does not breathe,
No love, no passion known wherein it does not seethe. ”

“ People will come, bow down to you
⁠And honor your command,
With silver words of praise they ring
⁠Your fame throughout the land.
The outer world is brightly garbed,
⁠With a siren’s call it spurs;
Many a man has answered it,
⁠But never a man returns. ”

“ No sooner has any one died hereabouts or in Constantinople, when the fellow is ready with his death mask, the very same day. That’s because he draws in advance . . . but the devil knows, he never makes a mistake, the vulture!’
The old Polish lady gave a shriek; her daughter had dropped into her arms in a dead faint, looking like death itself.
Her fiancé leapt down the steps at one bound, seized the Greek with one hand and his sketch-book with the other. ”

“ The mother cried heartbreakingly all the way and great tears rolled down the young man’s cheeks, despite the fact that Horáček had been a rascal from his very childhood.
Horáček’s parents were hucksters. They did not fare ill as, in general, hucksters who have their own shop get along well where many poor people live. Money gathers slowly, to be sure, when it comes in by kreutzers and groats for wood, butter and lard, especially when one must throw in a pinch of salt and caraway. But for all that, the groats are cash and two-groat debts were punctually paid. ”

“ Heal the cut of one sore wounded, that he will not die?”
“Open wounds on human bodies are not easily closed,
Only the juice of witches’ herb heals beneath the sky.”
“Tell me, granny, granny dearest, what will ease the pain,
Heal the pain of one sore tortured, wounds on head and brow?” ”

“ Yes . . . let us be the little star
Around which, the big ones turn.
It can be done, if each of us,
Sees to his own sound stock.
If each of us be hard as flint,
Our nation will be hard as a rock. ”

“ At times I looked through the open door at the whirling, laughing couples, and again I would gaze out into the dark garden. Sometimes when a brighter streak of lightning flashed I could see near the garden wall at the end of the arcade white piles of human bones. ”

“ He can play at night all he wants to—up on the roof,” grumbled his mother. Jona sat where he was and kept looking up at his sister. He watched her slightest movement.
The mother and the brothers did not love him. He had only his sister, and to her he clung with all the emotion of his weak mind. But in the neighborhood it was said that he was inspired by the Holy Ghost. No one taught him to play upon the violin. And no one could imitate him. He had never had a teacher and he played only his own pieces. ”

“ In the hearth, a crackling log is burning
⁠Grandpa seated warms his hands and soul.
Softly hums the wheel his son is turning,
⁠Carving out the wood a sturdy bowl.
What a queer chant this old wheel is singing ”

“ Even the one day is unforgettable. The air was so pure and soft and clear that the eye soared as on downy wings from distance to distance. On the right the brown rocks of Asia rose from the sea, on the left, in the distance, were the blue, steep shores of Europe ”

“ If humanity should waver like a mighty heaving sea,
Then like the ocean coral, the peaceful Czechs should be.
And if humanity, like an Alpine range, should soar,
The Czechs should be a Mont Blanc, and rise for evermore.
And if humanity should seem like skies aglow with stars,
Then let the Czechs be known as the flaming, mighty Mars. ”

“ His German style was soon very polished. It was the only subject in which he received a grade of “excellent” throughout his career at the gymnasium. His exercises were always replete with beautiful thoughts and phrases. His teacher once asserted that he had a style so flowery that it resembled Herder’s style. They had regard for this, and when he did not know much in other branches they would say that he had great talent, but that he was a rascal. They did not, however, trust themselves to spoil his talent and Horáček slipped through even the final decisive examination. ”

“ Whenever she coughed, her escort stood still in concern. He kept looking at her pityingly, and she at him, as much as to say: "There is really nothing the matter,—how happy I am!" They were clearly convinced of recovery and happiness.
On the recommendation of the Greek, who had left us immediately by the landing stage, the family had hired a lodging at the inn which stands on the hill. The inn-keeper was a Frenchman, and his whole house, in accordance with French style, was arranged comfortably and neatly. ”

“ On All Souls' Day, for no amount of money in the world, would Miss Mary decide whose grave she should decorate first. An innocent, five year old child must make the decision, and wherever the child leads, there the first wreath is placed.
Beside the graves of Cibulka and Rechner, Miss Mary bought place for a third grave. People say she has a mania for buying the graves of people of whom she never heard. Mrs. Magdalene Topper lies in one of these graves. God rest her soul! She was a good woman. The grave of Mrs. Topper lies right between the graves of Cibulka and Rechner. ”

“ And youth have its song and its mirth.
I pass by a group of girls and boys
With whose chatter, I have weary grown,
Peering through spectacles, a cane in one hand,
My features as lifeless as stone. ”

“ Never on any other day is she so especially careful at the coffee roasting, so particular that the cakes be light and well baked. Today her conversation is always carried on in a sort of subdued voice. They do not say very much, but what they do say, sounds monotonous. From time to time a tear shines upon the cheek and the number of their friendly embraces is increased. They sit long upon the sofa side by side, until they reach the yearly point of their conversation. ”

“ In Small Side people know their neighbors well, perhaps because they know no one else, and when Horáček died they told each other it was a good thing, for by his death his good mother would be relieved, and then, “He was a rascal.” ”

“ Nocar, as the more experienced of the two, should write the letter to Rechner, and then Miss Mary was to copy it.
But scarcely had a week passed when Miss Mary came to her friend again with another letter. Her face beamed with satisfaction. The letter read:
Esteemed Miss: There is nothing that is wrong, everything has its place. If I had known earlier that my dear friend, Cibulka, had asked for your hand, I should not have made a like venture. But he said nothing to me, and, therefore, I knew nothing. I have already told him everything, and I retire because he is so fond of you. ”

“ At the examination František received nothing, and the schoolmaster told his mother to attend to him more severely, that he was already a regular rascal.
And in reality František was a thorough rascal. In the parish school he sat beside the son of the inspector and used to go home with him, hand in hand. They used to play together at the inspector’s house. František was permitted to rock the youngest child, and for that he would get a little white pot of coffee for lunch. The inspector’s son always had beautiful clothes and a white, stiffy starched collar. ”