Josef Svatopluk Machar

“ The nation held its peace.
No persecution since that following the battle of the White Mountain was more cruel than this military one carried out in the kingdom of Bohemia in the years 1915-1916; both of them are worthy of each other, and in fact our persecution is a new epitome of all persecutions to which we have been subjected during the last 300 years.
Today we hope that it was the last persecution, just as that in Brussels in the year 1567. Errors in policy are a crime, and every crime brings a fearful revenge in its wake. ”

“ Nobody in the other world has ever detected signs of it within me, nobody shall ever do so here among the filthy dregs of human society. Here a man practices mimicry, it is true, he adapts himself to his new surroundings, but he cannot drag forth his soul as the rest do, and expose it quivering to the gaze of beholders. No word of grief must pass the lips, the breast must heave no sigh, and not the least stirring of sorrow must be revealed in the glance. Everything must remain within the soul, and there let it crystallize ”

“ Molière is not a hard and unrelenting judge like Shakespeare. He only holds a mirror up to his age, watches it regarding itself there, smiles when he sees it frowning and bursts into loud laughter whenever it indulges in a fit of offended wrath. The principle of its life is to enjoy life. To enjoy it as much, as widely, as long as possible. That is why not even old age is to be a hindrance to enjoyment. ”

“ A defence-corps man in front, a defence-corps man behind, one two, one two, I with short civilian steps between them.
It is impossible for them to keep me here longer than the end of the week. Such a paltry matter. After all, we are in the twentieth century. Within a week I shall certainly be among my books—such were my thoughts, and I felt like a cockchafer which is preparing to fly; it raises the covering of its wings, stretches the delicate membranes of its netlike wings, and moves them as if testing them; and its whole body moves as if it were taking breath for a magnificent flight. ”

“ I sleep for eight hours and you know that dreams are an important part of my life,—and I dream about liberty. Night after night I have dreams about freedom, and if this estimable official here (I turned to Frank) had the least idea of it, he would station a defence-corps man by my bed to wake me up every ten minutes: Hi, hi, are you dreaming about freedom? That is forbidden, you are in jail. ”

“ IX.
"Military justice,—that is a polypus with a multitude of arms and tentacles, and once it has seized anyone, he never escapes its clutches again. Even if you wriggled away from one tentacle, two others will grip you close, and three more will be brandished above your head. It has strength, but scarcely anything else. Together with Rašín and Kramář, the unfortunate Zamazal happened to slip into its grasp—good, it squeezed Zamazal with them. But here there can certainly be no question of a malicious joke,—anything but a joke" remarked Dušek. ”

“ I believe that what others call a soul is a holy fire in man, greater in some, less in others, in others again only a tiny spark; and this holy fire forms our moral, artistic and human worth. At that moment I saw a spark of it flashing with humour in the eyes of this robber.
"Kranz, how much longer?" asked the sergeant.
"Five and a half,—if Papritz doesn't get into my way when I'm in a temper." ”

“ I finished reading the biography of Julius Caesar. A fascinating book,—in the hours when I was reading it, I was not in jail. If the worthy authorities had an inkling how and whither a man's spirit is carried away by such reading, they certainly would not allow any books here at all. If the body is deprived of liberty, then the spirit ought not to be allowed to rove about,—and certainly not in ancient Gaul and in times two thousand years removed. But that is the old materialistic slovenliness; they attend to the body, but the spirit,—what do they care about the spirit! ”

“ They looked up at us,—some greeted, obviously our fellow-countrymen. Men old and young, in clothing which varied from the workmen's dress to a lounge suit, healthy and sick, as shown by their gait and the colour of their faces, swarmed in fours like a large dark reptile along the ellipse of the yard.
"The thick-set man in the cap is Markov,—condemned to death" explained Dr. Soukup to me, "the old man beside him is Kurylewicz, also condemned to death, the one who is just greeting us is Giunio."
All were talking, a muffled buzzing penetrated to the room where we were. ”

“ Simon,—by what motives was his father actuated when he gave him this name? Simon, who denied our Lord Jesus Christ, Simon who was the creator of the historical crime of simony, or sacrilege. I direct my question through all historical ages: was there ever in the world a father who predestined his child's career thus by the mere name? What inveterate cynicism, what dreadful criminal instincts! You will deny and trade with a people's holiest possession,—its native land. Yes, gentlemen, all this is implied in the name of Simon. ”

“ Sweetheart, dear wife, when a man is in the trenches and the bullets are whistling and buzzing over his head, he thinks differently of the woman he likes than in civil life. He wrote whenever he had the chance, death raged around him, but he wrote. And today he would box her ears for every word which he had sent her, for every sigh when he had thought of her. The bitch, the bitch! Now and then she let him know that she could not write,—there was the farm, the vineyard, always something or other. ”

“ The first man who had visited me in the Rudolfinerhaus after my operation, the first one who was visiting me in jail.
"My dear M" he began, and his voice trembled.
"Doctor, no sentimentality, I have been imprisoned because of four stupid poems."
"My dear sir", intervened Dr. Frank.
"Oh, I see. It's not allowed. Very well. As you see, I am in good health, in jail of course, but for eight hours a day I have the most glorious freedom."
"How is that? Do you go for a walk?" asked Dr. T. in astonishment, and even Frank looked at me inqusitively. ”

“ Gentlemen, we are living in times which both in their significance and in their horror surpass everything of which humanity has hitherto been a witness. Whether we search in the remotest and darkest recesses of human history, whether we pass the bygone centuries in review, we shall find nothing that resembles these days of ours. ”

“ Bang, bang, crash, crash, crash, trrrrrr.
Frank has not sent for me, has not cross-examined me,—this occurred to me. Still,—only calm, calm. We are here bearing a fragment of our country's honour, and therefore: No weakness. Poets mould the spirit of a nation. Poets and philosophers. Not politicians, not lawyers, not surgeons, not engineers. And therefore it is quite right of them to lock us up. The spirit of the nation is rebellious,—that is our work. In former times poets created gods for mankind—Homer, the poets of the Old Testament, poets of the New Testament. Now they create men. ”

“ He showed a sincere interest, and declared that they ought to release the whole jail, and then send the defence-corps men home; all this arrangement, he said. was no use, led nowhere, and altogether had no sense.
A magnificent day, a truly magnificent day. How happy were these people, all these strange people in the streets today, how solemnly the trams clattered; whatever can it be that is in the air, in the sky, upon these old, grimy houses! Everything was so happy, everything so festively joyful. You are right,—enjoy yourselves, life is really beautiful after all. ”

“ A human being, a human being.
But Madam M. L. sat down without a word, as if she did not know whether to believe it, and when she began to believe it, as if she did not know whether it was all a dream or not. And in her face she had, strangely enough, an expression of painful surprise. (Later on she admitted to me that she had heard only the tone of Frank's voice but not his words, and from the tone of it she had felt that my situation had become more acute) . ”

“ Among the many interesting and talented Czech writers of today J. S. Machar occupies a foremost place. He has succeeded in gaining popular favour without sacrificing his literary ideals. He is always in close touch with the events of the day, upon which he comments fearlessly and often drastically. He is, in fact, not merely a literary celebrity but a national personality, whose opinions meet with interest, if not always with agreement, among a wide circle of readers in Czechoslovakia. ”

“ All revolutions, whether active or passive, produce people such as Šlik; they undertake and carry them out in the conviction that their cause is just, but then when their cause comes to grief, they desert it, disguise it, deny it and conceal it,—as if defence of this kind had ever helped those who were, defeated, and could ward off the vengeance of those who had conquered. ”

“ A number of European States have for a long time and with unconcealed hatred observed the progress and prosperity of our Monarchy and of our powerful neighbour-state, whose victorious troops are fighting shoulder to shoulder with our dauntless armies. Trade, industry and commerce flourished, the people enjoyed a wide degree of liberty, our Empire was a paradise upon earth. But hatred is an evil and malicious neighbour. ”

“ I am on the threshold of death, life may be closed to me at any moment. Business,—what do you care about business? Correspondence,—what folly. To live, above all and solely to live. You are here in jail, it is true, but how much better than in hospital. And, as is customary in Austria, everything has been forbidden you, but after a few days you will be allowed to write, visitors will arrive, and finally you will manage your affairs from here, just as well as from a sanatorium."
"He is right", observed Mr. Fels to Goldenstein, and breathed with relief. ”

“ And so l was not,—oh, excellent Frank!
I conducted my defence-corps men back to arrest. The sun, the good sun warmed me, the mild air fondled me,—good heavens, are the hours really numbered to the time I shall be able to pass through this street, a free man, unrestricted by time and space? The street was filled with bustle, its signs of life flitted before my eyes, and I should be able to plunge into these waves and swim where and how I pleased.
We arrived home, they wanted to hand me over to the superintendent, but nobody could be seen anywhere. ”

“ Lamm is his surname. Lamm! No greater cynicism has been perpetrated since the creation of the world than that such a scoundrel should be called Lamm, a lambkin, a lamb, the symbol of our Saviour, an animal which, after the dove, is the most peacable and most virtuous: This criminal's surname is Lamm. Gentlemen, a greater spiritual derangement, a more depraved contempt for all that the whole of mankind has hitherto held in esteem, I cannot imagine. These two names would of themselves suffice." (Sensation throughout the court) . ”

“ And I could not help it even when he sternly commanded me to buy new pens. Today a scratchy pen had returned into my life, and would come again a week later, a fortnight later, a year later, two years later,—now that I have learnt to write and have been put here for writing in a certain way. Fate has a confounded instinct for making circles in human life, and closes them exactly where they were begun. ”

“ He is the superintendent's right hand, so that while the superintendent sits and smokes pipe after pipe, Fiedler does the work. Returns, reports, bills, orders—he prepares them-all. And at the same time he is a kind of minor Papritz for our floor. Only he is not such a bully. He himself is fond of life and he is willing to let others live also. He drinks good wines, smokes good cigars, obtains everything for which he has a fancy, the caterer is altogether considerate, both as a man and as a trader, and besides that, do you know that we have here quite a quantity of real millionaires? ”

“ During a few evenings in February there were heavy and vicious winds, but one day the sun leapt into the blue sky with such warmth and radiance, that the people quivered with sheer delight and blinked their eyes at the unaccustomed lustre; crows swayed slantingly in the air on their ragged wings as if they wished to expose now their backs, now their bellies to the warmth of the sun ”

“ I have loved nothing so much in the world as this freedom of mine; I could not even imagine that it would be possible to live without it—and lo, I am living here, I am living without sunshine, without air, in dirt, amid hunger, with thieves, sharpers, robbers and murderers, which human society has rejected from its midst ”

“ He: "You see how well we understand each other."
In short, the sword of Damocles hung by a slender thread above my freedom. On no day was I certain whether in the evening I should be able to lie down in my bed, no night, whether I should finish sleeping in my bed. If I came home and saw a motor-car standing in front of the house, my heart gave a thump, and I said to myself: already. ”

“ A sultry stillness settled upon the whole kingdom of Bohemia. Cowards began to accommodate themselves to the prevailing conditions, and met the rule of terror halfway. People with firm back-bones repeated the words of Talleyrand: Everything in the world can be proved by means of bayonets, but it is impossible to sit on them. Let us believe and hope that this will pass. At Prague anecdotes and jokes came into being, and with the rapidity of light they sped through Bohemia and Moravia, evoking smiles from the faces of a nation which had become unaccustomed to mirth. ”

“ Fels remarked to me towards evening that he did not believe in my release, that the governor had been amusing himself at my expense,—and he remarked this with an undisguised joy, which was easy to understand; in such a cell there is only one person whom a man does not begrudge the excursion to freedom,—and that is himself. ”