Jan Neruda

“ 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. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ Forgive us if ungrateful we seem.
We chain our thoughts to the lightning above,
Our feet speed with the power of steam.
We’ll come! Our spirits higher soar,
Our blood beats with an unquenched thirst;
With a feverish longing for far off worlds,
Tis a wonder our hearts do not burst.
We will come nearer, higher still . . .
To the ends of the world we shall see.
We strike at our bars, we, the lions at heart,
We’ll shatter the bars and be free.
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content. ”