Karel Havlíček Borovský

“ With my doleful eloquence
I will show that ’gainst policemen
E’en a god has no defense.
Here they lead him, bound and shackled—
How it galls my peace of mind!—
Two are pulling at his elbows,
One is pushing from behind. ”

“ As long as he keeps peasants
⁠In reverence and thrall.
“They ridicule our sermons
⁠As were they asses’ bray,
And they have now to no one
⁠For Vladimir to pray.
“They need some god to make them
⁠Quail with his thunder’s roar—
We cannot work without one,
⁠You must some god restore!” ”

“ Attending these their mothers,
⁠Their cousins and their aunts,
With numerous confessors
⁠And all their ministrants.
This mighty Camarilla
⁠Was with advice replete,
Just as a butcher’s market
⁠Is ever full of meat. ”

“ More powerful than ministries
⁠Or any Potentate,
The secret Camarilla
⁠Ruled, too, the Russian State.
Preserve us, Lord—Shumavsky, [1]
⁠The glorious contender!
For every Camarilla seems
⁠To be of female gender.
In his regard of sexes
⁠Vladimir was oblique!
He ruled men with an iron hand,
⁠But women made him weak. ”

“ Vladimir” is a blasphemy (Masaryk declares) in which Havlicek, as poet, showed himself more radical than he ever did as journalist or politician, either in politics or religion. He has repeatedly explained why Havlicek indulged in this irreverence and sacrilege. He sees in it a basis of a catholicism which Havlicek has outgrown and the course of which, in his day, was more provocative to negation than protestantism.
It was he who founded Bohemian journalism—at a time when it was treason to spread news, literature or other propaganda in behalf of freedom and liberation of his countrymen. ”

“ From here the triumphant procession wended its way to Kiev, where the announcement of the Tsar’s conversion preceded it. The priests at once proceeded with a mass conversion of the populace without any difficulty. Vladimir ordered that all the pagan idols and their temples be demolished and sacked. ”

“ The new gods they establish
⁠Must to their moods appeal,
Whom yesterday they murdered
⁠Today before him kneel.
“In this world all things perish
⁠Like rubbish, and decay.
Even the kingdom of a god,
⁠It seems, must pass away. ”

“ This tragedy, added to the suffering and privations of prison life, played havoc with his health and his state of mind to such an extent that he survived her a little more than a year, leaving an orphaned daughter and a sad, mourning nation. ”

“ With whom this great position
⁠They, with confidence, could fill:
“We cannot use a novice—
⁠We must have one well tried;
One highly recommended,
⁠Able and dignified.
“Nor must we stint our roubles
⁠For the honor of the State,
We dare not wrong impressions
⁠In foreign lands create.” ”

“ They never heard before.
They dredded that their future
Strange horrors held in store.
This world, though, is unchanging,
While humans there abide—
And spitting in the ocean
Will never turn its tide. ”

“ Confession, absolution,
⁠Jesuits, Latin prayer;
Teach people moderation
⁠In daily drink and fare.
As bait: a bit of heaven,
⁠Some swollen-throated saint—
From high up comes all power—
⁠And devils for restraint. ”

“ The Black Sea wind blows o’er the steppe
⁠And makes the high grass tremble—
Ambitious candidates make haste
⁠In Kiev to assemble
PUBLIC
AUCTION
The western wind through Kiev blows
⁠And fills the town with dust—
Each applicant extols himself,
⁠Puts others in distrust. ”

“ Just about this time Vladimir was engaged in his usual occupation of plunder and was sacking the City of Kherson in the Crimea. He at once sent delegates to Basil with his acceptance, requesting that the ceremonies be performed at Kherson. The Emperor dispatched his sister, accompanied by many magnificently robed dignitaries of the Church, to the Crimean city, where the nuptial rites were performed with all the pomp and grandeur befitting such an important occasion, but preceded by the ceremony of conversion and baptism of Tsar Valdimir (988 A. D.) . ”

“ His essays, letters, editorial articles and poems were widely read by the masses, since the language he employed, as seen in this epic poem, was that of the masses.
Bohemian literature, to which he added a goodly share, was then only in its inception, though it ranks today on a level with that of most of the civilized nations. ”

“ The Mohammedans’ inducements were total abstinence, circumcision and the belief in Allah and his Prophet—which would lead them to Paradise where beautiful houris were awaiting them. Did not grapes grow for the delight of man? ”

“ After their departure he selected a delegation of his boyars as envoys to visit the different countries and to study the condition of their peoples under their various creeds.
Having investigated all the different religions and practices in all the adjacent countries, and having rejected them as unsuitable to their needs, the envoys arrived at Constantinople, seat of the Eastern Catholic See. ”

“ To help with physics lessons
⁠Some backward college boys.
Did not some peasant women
⁠Make a few kopeks clink,
I could not, e’en on Sundays,
⁠Buy me a little drink.
“To work for nearly nothing
⁠Drives me most to despair ”