Page:Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse by Paul Selver.djvu/260

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236
OTAKAR BŘEZINA

Feverish tropical gardens of blood, of thirst, and of princely dreamings;
The burden of all fruits ripened by suns visible and invisible
And that clamour for tempests and culling;
Seething of bee-swarms before dispersing; contests of nations through centuries;
Harmonious soaring of earth in the splendid curve of its orbit, and in earthquakes;
Azure mirrors of heaven even above the isles of them accursed by leprosy,
Chalk mountain-ranges where oceans once thundered
And where once again they shall thunder,
Sparkling of insects in forests of grass,
Sparkling of worlds in infinities,
Sparkling of thought in spirit herbages of the unknown.
Because of the delicate smiling of eyes undeceived by the gigantic Hallucination,
Blissful is life!

Because of blood that gushes from age to age out of the sinewy arms
Upraising the load of the past like hinges of prison-portals!
Because of the sublime cause of the joy of myriads!
Because of the secret price of the death of all brethren who died for us