Czecho-Slovak Student Life/Volume 18/Number 1/Greeting

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Translated by Ivan Kramoris:

GREETING.

From Hviezdoslav’s “Hájníkova žena”.

I greet you wood and forest, I greet you withA spirit the world has maimed; weakenedBy lies and overworked, until its sightHas waned. ’Tis you, O whispering greens,Who will restore to life and resurrect,Bedew and heal the festering wound;Who will bestow on us the treasures ofYour womb—your love. O home of everlastingTruth, where traitors arm had never reached,O Mother, without asking who or what,Leadest man into thy loving bosom; justOne moment in its resting calm dispelsAll pain, the chains of bondage drop and allOur sorrow ceases. Just one whisper ofThe forest, just one melody of mountainFall and my soul is lifted upward andMy spirit is beside itself with joy.New hope releaves my slavery, heart throbs areReborn; one circle of the eagle, justOne falcon’s dizzy flight, just one shrill whistleIn the silent forest and a single flashOf camp fire in the night, and then my soulIs gripped by freedom, flickering, flashing intoTongues, flying on high with wings of lightLike meteors of the night. One moment, likeThe motion of a hair when in the wind,The vision may be mine, to see the secretChambers of wood and forest. Friends, I greet you.

 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, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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Translation:

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1927, before the cutoff of January 1, 1930.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1974, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 50 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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