An Anthology of Modern Bohemian Poetry/The Yellow Flower

THE YELLOW FLOWER

On the court-yards of the Hradchin,
In restfulness and orphan-lone,
The blades of grass, long-suffering,
Raise their heads above the stone.
Grass, dear grass, that bear'st thy doom
With patience, grass suffused with gloom.

O'er it winds are sweeping,
On it the sun is beaming,
From this grass is blooming
A blossom yellow-gleaming.
In all the country none appears
More yellow, and 'tis washed by tears.

Pluck thou one asunder,
It fills thy heart with woe;
Pluck thou now a second,
In thy hand 'twill glow.
Pluck thou a third, without a sound
Blood from its stem flows to the ground.

On the court-yards of the Hradchin,
A wanderer passes by;
He plucks the flowers asunder,
A garland he would tie.
A hundred years in his search he doth spend
'Mid the stones, for of blossoms there is no end.

"Songs of the Hradchin" (1904).

 This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.

Original:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1939, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 84 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.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

Translation:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


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 53 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.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse