Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse/Walt Whitman
5. WALT WHITMAN.
Who art thou?—But an atom, quick with song.
What wilt thou?—Naught.—Where flee'st thou?—Back again
To her in whom for ages I had lain,
Ere wonder bore my dreaming soul along.
What see'st thou?—All, as merged amid one lay.
What creed fulfill'st thou?—Righteousness and toil.
Thy comrade?—All!—Whom meetest thou in broil?—
All men are right, to whomsoe'er they pray.
What rat'st thou highest? Boundless liberty!—
Thou fear'st not death?—'Tis life in other guise.—
What recks thee fame?—Less than an insect's drone.—
Thy laws?—My will can fashion them for me.—
Thy joy?—To watch creations billows rise,
And take its visions for my spirit's own.
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.
| Original: |
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse |
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| 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 |
