An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/Pythagoras

Pythagoras

O YOUTH from Syracuse, tired of the world,But yet unsated, yearnest to join our circle,—What, seekest thou wisdom? We possess it not.Nor is there any mortal doth possess it.We do but call ourselves the friends of it.And truth thou yearnest for? There is none, boy.Thyself appearest now to be anotherThan thou wert once. Thou in another body,Another age, another zone of earth,Didst live, another mortal,—but from thenFaint inklings surely sometimes flash upon thee:Thou seest a strange land thou hast trod of old;Some thought that thou didst think in another life.

There only is one mighty harmonyOf spheres, fates, things. Which only for a flashAppears to thee, or may be heard by thee,But cannot lastingly be seized upon;And then, boy, there is certainty of numbers.And lines and shapes. This can be given thee.And such a gift is no small thing in life:A firm point whereon a man may lean,When thoughts and systems crumble into naught,And a safe anchorage for thine own soul. . . .

Number’s the soul of things, for it doth liveAs tree and stone, air and the river’s tide.

Into this world we’ll lead thee. But thou mustIn the old world leave your old self. The pathTowards us is burdensome. Thou needs must oft Be silent, worth of speech to learn; thou mustRenounce life’s joys, that joys thou canst attain;All things must thou reject which have been thine,That thou mayst value what things are vouchsafed thee.

And to thee is vouchsafed but certainty,The soul of numbers, harmony of shapes,No name, no glory. Once there dwelt with usHippasos, a stripling of thy build and years,With thirsting spirit. Hippasos discoveredOne new tone ‘mid the harmony of things,Known as the twelve-fold. He, drunken with pride,Proclaimed his find, giving it his own name.And then it was I flung him from the cragInto the sea. For the new life he betrayedAnd the soul’s thirst would have assuaged with glory. . .

Consider all, O youth from Syracuse.And if there tremble weakness in your soul,Withdraw betimes. When the snake sheds its slough’Tis dazed with pangs and sufferings, the whichAs touching harmony of fates, O youth,Shall befall thee. Depart from Kroton cityHomeward, and from the maids of SyracuseTake to thyself a wife, get children, liveAs lives the human herd. Or else remain―And living, thou shalt vanish from amongMemory of the living, and shalt beOnly a tone amid the harmonyWhich sounds and wanes that it may sound anew. . . .In the Gleam of Hellenic Sun (1906)

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, 1930.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1942, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 82 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, 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.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse