An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/Marco Polo
For other English-language translations of this work, see Marco Polo (Vrchlický).
Marco Polo
I, MARCO POLO, Christian and Venetian,Acknowledge God the Trinity and cherishHope of salvation in eternityFor my sin-laden soul: In this my faith,In this my trust is set. What of my love,Ye ask? And I give answer tranquilly:My love is long and distant journeys; everNew-found horizons, new-found peoples, freshExploits on ocean and dry land, and everFresh enterprises. (This, my forebears’ blood)Much have I seen, to much have given ear;I reached the land, whereof ye scarce have inkling,Where amber grows like golden foliage,Where salamanders (that ye dub asbestos)Blossom and blaze like lilies petrified,Where glowing naphtha gushes from the earth,Where there is equal wealth of rubies, asOf holly here in winter; where acrossTheir back and on their shoulders they tattooThe image of an eagle; where the womenAlone rule, and the men are given upFrom birth to heavy service till they die. I gazed upon the realm whose ruler isKhan of Cathay; and I have sat at meatWith those who feed on men: I was as a waveAmid the surf: the mighty emerald(Pre-destined for the vizier of Bagdad)Beneath my tongue I carried through the desert.For thirty days and nights I came not downOut of my saddle. I have seen great desertsLike ruffled raiment billowing afar;The ocean sleeping underneath the moonLike a stiff winding-sheet; strange stars ablazeBeneath strange zones. I visited the realmsOf Prester John, where goodness, virtue andRighteousness ruled, as in a legend,—yea,Now meseems almost that I even reachedThe wondrous nook of earth, where AlexanderOnce lighted on the wilderness of Ind,And came no farther on his way, becauseOf mighty downpours that abated not.(Perchance upon the faery realm he thereSet foot, or e’en upon the town celestial,And shrank away in dread, when at the gateAn angel put a skull into his hand,Saying: A few more years, and this shall beThy portion,—this, and not a tittle more!”)And I beheld that land of mysteryWhere lay the paradise of earth, where flowedThe spring of youth, concealed within the grassAmid a thousand others, whence I drankFrom many, and, ’tis very like, from youth:And therefore all endured I with acclaim,And therefore all, as in a mirror, IPerceive within my soul, and now portray it. The world is changed of aspect: I shall dieLike others, but my heritage remains:The lust for seeing all and learning all,To ransack all for the delight of man;Legion shall be my sons: they shall proceedFarther than I, but scarcely shall see more,For earth sheds wonders as a snake its skin.Old age I know, with many dreams and secrets.And that suffices me. And they who comeAfter me, let them take, as it may chance,Of what remains to them, as best they can,As I did. I sit foremost at the feastOf distant journeys, and it likes me well,All prospers me, and I fare well with all.To make all life a vigil over books,To rack one’s brain ‘mid piles of yellow parchments.Seeking the truth of writing and of thought,Is much, in sooth; to live an age in camps’Mid roll of drums and trumpets in assaults,O’er ramparts in a rain of missiles, inRuins of towns, amid laments of women,Weeping of children, groaning of the fallen,Is much, in sooth; to be a holy bishop,Legions of spirits to escort to heaven,(The which he knoweth not) by solace ofThe faith alone, and by the word of God,In marble and in gold to hearken toThe cadence and the dreamy grief of psalms,Is much, in sooth; but to behold and knowWith one’s own eyes the distant, ample lands,And oceans, plains and star-tracks of the skies,And divers folk, their habit, usage, gods,This too, availeth something, and hath charm By special token of its newness, thatDoth ever change. And I have savoured this,I, Marco Polo, Christian and Venetian.
New Fragments of an Epic (1894)
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This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930. 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 54 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.
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