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Seifert, Jaroslav: A Wreath of Sonnets I (Věnec sonetů I in English)

Portre of Seifert, Jaroslav

Věnec sonetů I (Czech)

Praha! To chutná jak hlt vína,
Opakuji si stokráte
to jméno dechem naváté
a sladší dechu milenčina.

Ať sirény však nad domy,
dají si radši přilbu s čela,
beztak nám ještě nedozněla
siréna našich svědomí.

Kdybych ji viděl jako vázu,
z níž zůstaly jen střep a prach,
kdybych měl přežít jeji zkázu,

prach její sládl by v mé slině.
Je jako pečeťna listině,
i kdyby byla v sutinách.



Uploaded byRépás Norbert
PublisherViněta Miloslav Troup, sazba a tisk Jaroslav Picka (samizdatové vydání)
Source of the quotationPraha a věnec sonetů. Básně z let 1945 - 1949. Sbírka Monumenta genii bohemici, sv. 4.
Publication date

A Wreath of Sonnets I (English)

Prague, that's a sip of wine with flavour,
a hundred times I say her name,
light as a breath and bright as flame,
and sweeter than a lover's favour.

Yet, may the alarm sirens, please,
take off their helmets, silent, muted.
They haven't stopped yet, they have hooted,
the sirens of our consciences.

And if I saw her, broken vessel,
glass splinters scattered far around,
and with her doom I had to wrestle,

her dust inside my mouth would sweeten,
she's like a seal on what's been written,
and were she levelled to the ground...



Uploaded byRépás Norbert
PublisherToronto : Larkwood Books Sixty-Eight (first published March 1952), ISBN: 0-88781-189-2
Source of the quotationA Wreath of Sonnets: Věnec sonetů
Publication date

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