An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/The Slave

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The Slave

I AM he whose ears have heard the slave-mother singing her strains;Out of my soul this singing of hers never, never wanes.With strange and stricken sorrow it sounded so forlorn ​Across our plough-scarred landscape softly it was borne,And seized upon the trembling spirit of a child.
I am he who beneath the lash of the task-master grew,Beneath the lash that opens day by day unhealed wounds anew,That never, never the trace of their weals can disappear.Still my bended back cannot brace itself in its fear,But a spark hidden till now gleams in my lowered gaze. . .
I am he who waits for the sound of the tocsin’s boom,That the slave who wreaks not vengeance shall go to a grievous doom.Then shall I raise my back, and my face will be aglow.By then shall I plant the trees, from which the gibbets grow. . . .O, mournful it was to hear the slave-mother singing her strains!Verses (1912).

 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 1958, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 66 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

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