The Soul Of A Century/I close my eyes and darkness overtakes me

The Soul Of A Century (1943)
I close my eyes and darkness overtakes me
by Jaroslav Vrchlický, translated by Roderick Aldrich Ginsburg
3725007The Soul Of A Century — I close my eyes and darkness overtakes me1943Jaroslav Vrchlický

I CLOSE MY EYES AND DARKNESS OVERTAKES ME

Oh the beauty of your limbs, so white and slender,
Oh the endless longing in your dreamy eyes,
Oh the strength of passion that within you lies,
Oh the tempting nets of your tresses wild surrender.

A siren’s song, angelic voice and Judgment’s call
Dreams of a Spring asleep for centuries,
All this assails me in my memories,
And all this tempts me in your arms to fall.

I close my eyes, and yield to the wings of night,
Like a star, your being pours a stream of light
It seems, in you, I hold all Beauty’s mold.

Oh mystery, oh flames of a burning kiss,
Oh flaming tears, boundless abandon of bliss,
Oh budding breasts and hair of molten gold!

 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

Translation:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was legally published within the United States (or the United Nations Headquarters in New York subject to Section 7 of the United States Headquarters Agreement) between 1929 and 1977 (inclusive) without a copyright notice.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1987, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 36 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