Otakar Theer

Name: Modern Czech Poetry
Author: Otakar Theer

Biographical details

Otakar Theer (1880-1917) published works such as Modern Czech Poetry, Selected Czech Tales and Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse. These writings evoke chci, cigar and cripple.

Quotes by Otakar Theer

Otakar Theer, Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse (1919)

“ Thou hast shown us thine unmatched countenance, us uptempted
Hast thou taken unto thine embraces and lulled with a smile.
What thou didst murmur to us on sluggish afternoons, was:
Mighty deceit, that slumbered in thine unbounded gaze.
Then while the countryside awoke to glittering mornings,
Then while peasants sowed grain into the dusky soil,
Then while through firmaments surged a deluge of mighty love,
Thou didst take from us all, that was ours to take,
Our simple hearts, full of dreams and beauty,
Our strength, our freedom, our faith, peaceful and assuaging. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Otakar Theer, Selected Czech Tales (1925)

“ The masters, who were apt to take for granted that a pupil from the provinces must be badly taught, worried me like devils. They treated me as though I were either an idiot, or else a dangerous ne’er-do-weel. Far from being a favourite myself, I saw others being favoured. I once ventured to give my opinion on this point to our Latin professor, a dried-up little man with a badger’s face, who enjoyed nothing more than giving bad marks.
From that day onward school-life became a torture-chamber, with the masters as executioners. I became neurotic ”

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Source: Wikisource

Otakar Theer, Selected Czech Tales (1925)

“ I could have beaten my father and mother who had made me a cripple at birth.
Work seemed to me more useless than ever. I argued that if my parents were responsible for my being born a cripple, it was also their duty to make up to me for the happiness which had slipped through my fingers. I was quite clear on this point, that they were under obligation to me, not I to them.
But far from honouring these obligations, my father apprenticed me to a bricklayer, after I had firmly refused to re-enter the torture-chamber of the school. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Otakar Theer, Modern Czech Poetry (1920)

“ Strong with thy power.
Yonder I fare
To solitude's lair,
To the land of my phantasy's bringing.
“Anguish and Hope” (1913) .
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1928.
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 52 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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Source: Wikisource

Otakar Theer, Selected Czech Tales (1925)

“ Imagine my father’s happiness, sir! He was of humble birth. Through a happy combination of circumstances he had been able to take his degree at a university, and to marry a comparatively rich wife. Being an ambitious man, he looked upon every member of his family as a means to attain the social success for which he was longing. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Otakar Theer, Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse (1919)

“ In my every vein shall quiver.
As brothers we sink to watery depths
From heaven at our sorrow's lashing.
Destroying and rending, leap by leap,
Brothers akin we are crashing,—
And we know not whither and why. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Otakar Theer, Modern Czech Poetry (1920)

“ Chci sladký vzduch jarní v závrati jmout,
chci větve své k letu rozepnout,
chci vonět, chci vábit, chci šumět, chci kvést,
chci zlato slunce, chci stříbro hvězd.
Rekla má vůle srdci mému:
Dobře se děje zhýčkanému!
Léta jsi těkalo ze slasti v slast;
mne nebýt, neznáš trpět ni vlást.
Jsme zrozeni k činům, či zrozeni k snům? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Otakar Theer, Selected Czech Tales (1925)

“ Sometimes we all burst out crying and embraced each other, as though we were on the point of taking a leap into an abyss.
I began to read sociological literature, certain books in red covers, the very titles of which would make a bourgeois like you, sir, shiver. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Otakar Theer, Selected Czech Tales (1925)

“ My elder brother, a conscientious worker, who until recently had been regarded as a bundle of stupidity at home, earned decent reports through sheer industry, while I, ‘the prodigy,’ was left behind. When my brother was moved into the upper form, my father gave him a cigar on Sundays as an outward sign of his new dignity. I hated him for this cigar ”

Otakar Theer

Biographical details

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