An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/The Dream

For other English-language translations of this work, see The Dream (Karásek ze Lvovic).

The Dream

WAS it yesterday? Was it a hundred years since?I know not, yet very weary and unfirm I was,And my steps were the steps of a man who walks in a dream. And I passed through darksome causewaysAnd vacant and empty they were, and in them the wind moaned. So grievously moaned. . . .And from a turret the hour chimed. . . . And meseemed, That this voice summoned me into a cathedral vault,Where beneath heavy slabs with knightly scutcheons Slumber my ancestors. . . .Am I living or dead? I know not, but meseems,That although these causeways are strange and unknown to me, I have wandered therein of old,—Was it yesterday or a hundred years since? In this or in that life!I know not, but my gait is firm and unwaveringAs the gait of a man who wanders a wonted path. And I hear the creaking of door-posts,And hands unseen are openingHeavy portals of a gloomy palace.And I tread the stair-way of black marbleAnd my steps call into the darknessAnd dead spaces answer unto them—And I stride through darkness of passagesAnd pace the emptiness of ancient halls Ancestral halls,At the sides of which I surmise pictures of grandsiresAnd tatters of captured bannersAnd rusted weapons from old-time combats, Which savour of murder. . . .And I feel the mildew that bedecks all,And the air, that the dead inhale.And I see flickering in the darknessHaunting shadows and sorrowful crape.And I feel how my heart is beating vehemently,And my temples, how they are moistened with sweatAnd anguish clutches me at what I have endured, And what long is no more.Walled-up Windows (1894

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 1951, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 73 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