1701? / 1914

To their apartment deep
No ribaldry may creep
Untumbled this abode
By any man but God –

1702? / 1914

Today or this noon
She dwelt so close
I almost touched her –
Tonight she lies
Past neighborhood
And bough and steeple,
Now past surmise.

1703? / 1914

’Twas comfort in her Dying Room
To hear the living Clock –
A short relief to have the wind
Walk boldly up and knock –
Diversion from the Dying Theme
To hear the children play –
But wrong the more
That these could live
And this of ours must die.

1703JŠ06

To blaho, v úmrtním pokoji
hodiny slyšet jít,
úleva, vítr zvednout se
a směle zabušit.
Odvrat od věci smrti, smět
slyšet si děti hrát,
tím horší však,
že mohou žít
a ta z nás umírá.

1704? / 1955

Unto a broken heart
No other one may go
Without the high prerogative
Itself hath suffered too.

1704JŠ99

K srdci, jež zlomil žal,
smí jiné přistoupit,
jen má‑li vyšší zmocnění –
své vlastní útrapy.

1705? / 1914

Volcanoes be in Sicily
And South America
I judge from my Geography –
Volcanos nearer here
A Lava step at any time
Am I inclined to climb –
A Crater I may contemplate
Vesuvius at Home.

1705  VesuvJH77

Jsou v Jižní Americe sopky
a na Sicílii,
leč podle mého zeměpisu
jsou také sopky blíž.

Láva se kdykoli z nich řine,
chuť zlézt mám jejich svah
a zahledět se do kráteru –
ten Vesuv v sobě mám.

1705JŠ99

Sicílie je sopečná
i americký jih,
jak uvádí můj zeměpis.
Na sopky mnohem blíž
když po lávovém úhoru
chci šplhat nahoru,
do jícnu mohu pohledět –
do svého Vesuvu.

1706? / 1915

When we have ceased to care
The Gift is given
For which we gave the Earth
And mortgaged Heaven
But so declined in worth
’Tis ignominy now
To look upon –

1706EK06

Když už nás přešel cit,
dar nelze zpátky vrátit.
Dali jsme za něj svět
a nebe zbývá splatit.
Když v ceně klesl teď,
jaká to hanba je
naň pohledět.

1706JŠ06

Když přestals o něj dbát,
byl ti dán darem,
za nějž jsi dával zem,
zříkal se ráje,
však tak znehodnocen,
že hanba je to teď
naň pohlédnout.

1707? / 1955

Winter under cultivation
Is as arable as Spring.

1708? / 1914

Witchcraft has not a Pedigree
’Tis early as our Breath
And mourners meet it going out
The moment of our death –

1708EK06

Vždyť kouzlo nemá rodokmen,
rodí se s každým z nás –
truchlící se s ním setkají,
když vyprší náš čas.

1709? / 1955

With sweetness unabated
Informed the hour had come
With no remiss of triumph
The autumn started home

Her home to be with Nature
As competition done
By influential kinsmen
Invited to return –

In supplements of Purple
An adequate repast
In heavenly reviewing
Her residue be past –

1710? / 1945

A curious Cloud surprised the Sky,
’Twas like a sheet with Horns;
The sheet was Blue –
The Antlers Gray –
It almost touched the Lawns.

So low it leaned – then statelier drew –
And trailed like robes away,
A Queen adown a satin aisle
Had not the majesty.

1711? / 1896

A face devoid of love or grace,
A hateful, hard, successful face,
A face with which a stone
Would feel as thoroughly at ease
As were they old acquaintances –
First time together thrown.

1711JŠ99

Líc, na níž z lásky není nic,
zatvrdlá, zlá, úspěšná líc,
líc, s níž kus mramoru
si porozumí ve chvíli,
jako by k sobě patřily,
při prvém hovoru.

1711EK06

Tvář, v které není láska, zář,
úspěšná, zlá a ztvrdlá tvář,
ta tvář, co kámen k ní
by snadno do páru šel dát
a byl by jako starý kamarád
při prvním setkání.

1712? / 1945

A Pit – but Heaven over it –
And Heaven beside, and Heaven abroad,
And yet a Pit –
With Heaven over it.

To stir would be to slip –
To look would be to drop –
To dream – to sap the Prop
That holds my chances up.
Ah! Pit! With Heaven over it!

The depth is all my thought –
I dare not ask my feet –
’Twould start us where we sit
So straight you’d scarce suspect
It was a Pit – with fathoms under it –
Its Circuit just the same.
Seed – summer – tomb –
Whose Doom to whom?

1713? / 1945

As subtle as tomorrow
That never came,
A warrant, a conviction,
Yet but a name.

1714? / 1945

By a departing light
We see acuter, quite,
Than by a wick that stays.
There’s something in the flight
That clarifies the sight
And decks the rays.

1714ZH98

Když světlo zaniká,
je všechno – v značné míře – znát
ostřeji, než když hoří knot.
Je něco v odchodu, co pak
neobyčejně zjasní zrak
a rozšíří paprsku proud.

1714JŠ99

Světlo, jež dochází,
ostřeji ozáří
než knot, jenž může žít.
Je něco v loučení,
co zjasní vidění
a zkrášlí svit.

1715? / 1945

Consulting summer’s clock,
But half the hours remain.
I ascertain it with a shock –
I shall not look again.
The second half of joy
Is shorter than the first.
The truth I do not dare to know
I muffle with a jest.

1716? / 1896

Death is like the insect
Menacing the tree,
Competent to kill it,
But decoyed may be.

Bait it with the balsam,
Seek it with the saw,
Baffle, if it cost you
Everything you are.

Then, if it have burrowed
Out of reach of skill –
Wring the tree and leave it,
’Tis the vermin’s will.

1716JŠ99

Smrt je jako škůdce,
který ničí sad,
schopný zahubit jej,
jde však nalákat.

Polič na něj balzám,
s pilkou po něm jdi,
drť jej, ať to stojí
všechno to, co jsi.

Zahrabe‑li se pak
do bezpečných míst –
vyvrať strom a nech jej,
toť, co chce ten hmyz.

1717? / 1945

Did life’s penurious length
Italicize its sweetness,
The men that daily live
Would stand so deep in joy
That it would clog the cogs
Of that revolving reason
Whose esoteric belt
Protects our sanity.

1718? / 1896

Drowning is not so pitiful
As the attempt to rise.
Three times, ’tis said, a sinking man
Comes up to face the skies,
And then declines forever
To that abhorred abode,
Where hope and he part company –
For he is grasped of God.
The Maker’s cordial visage,
However good to see,
Is shunned, we must admit it,
Like an adversity.

1718JŠ99

Tonout není tak žalostné,
jak chtít se vynořit.
Třikrát prý může tonoucí
tváří v tvář nebe zřít,
a pak jej pojme navždy
ta hrozná budova,
kde rozloučí se s nadějí –
uchopen od Boha.
Před tváří Stvořitele,
ač plnou vlídnosti,
uhýbáme, jak víme,
jak před protivenstvím.

1719? / 1945

God is indeed a jealous God –
He cannot bear to see
That we had rather not with Him
But with each other play.

1720? / 1945

Had I known that the first was the last
I should have kept it longer.
Had I known that the last was the first
I should have drunk it stronger.
Cup, it was your fault,
Lip was not the liar.
No, lip, it was yours,
Bliss was most to blame.

1721? / 1945

He was my host – he was my guest,
I never to this day
If I invited him could tell,
Or he invited me.

So infinite our intercourse
So intimate, indeed,
Analysis as capsule seemed
To keeper of the seed.

1722? / 1945

Her face was in a bed of hair,
Like flowers in a plot –
Her hand was whiter than the sperm
That feeds the sacred light.
Her tongue more tender than the tune
That totters in the leaves –
Who hears may be incredulous,
Who witnesses, believes.

1723? / 1896

High from the earth I heard a bird,
He trod upon the trees
As he esteemed them trifles,
And then he spied a breeze,
And situated softly
Upon a pile of wind
Which in a perturbation
Nature had left behind.
A joyous going fellow
I gathered from his talk
Which both of benediction
And badinage partook.
Without apparent burden
I subsequently learned
He was the faithful father
Of a dependent brood.
And this untoward transport
His remedy for care.
A contrast to our respites.
How different we are!

1724? / 1896

How dare the robins sing,
When men and women hear
Who since they went to their account
Have settled with the year! –
Paid all that life had earned
In one consummate bill,
And now, what life or death can do
Is immaterial.
Insulting is the sun
To him whose mortal light
Beguiled of immortality
Bequeaths him to the night.
Extinct be every hum
In deference to him
Whose garden wrestles with the dew,
At daybreak overcome!

1725? / 1929

I took one Draught of Life –
I’ll tell you what I paid –
Precisely an existence –
The market price, they said.

They weighed me, Dust by Dust –
They balanced Film with Film,
Then handed me my Being’s worth –
A single Dram of Heaven!

1725JŠ99

Lokla jsem z života.
Povím vám, co stál lok –
přesně mou existenci –
tržní kurz za ten mok.

Brali mě po kouskách,
vkládali na váhu,
pak mi tu částku podali –
jediný rajský hlt!

1726? / 1945

If all the griefs I am to have
Would only come today,
I am so happy I believe
They’d laugh and run away.

If all the joys I am to have
Would only come today,
They could not be so big as this
That happens to me now.

1726  Kiež žiale, ktoré zažiť mámMR83

Kiež žiale, ktoré zažiť mám,
prídu dnes, teraz hneď.
Taká som šťastná! Každý z nich
navždy preč odtiahne.

Kiež radosti, čo zažiť mám,
prídu dnes, teraz hneď.
Nebudú väčšie, než je tá,
čo vo mne šťastie žne.

1726JŠ06

Když všechny žaly, jež mám mít,
by přišly v dnešní den,
kdy jsem tak šťastná, věřím, že
by prchly s úsměvem.

Když všechna radost, již mám mít,
by přišla v dnešní den,
nebude velká jako ta,
jež nastává mi teď.

1727? / 1945

If ever the lid gets off my head
And lets the brain away
The fellow will go where he belonged –
Without a hint from me,

And the world – if the world be looking on –
Will see how far from home
It is possible for sense to live
The soul there – all the time.

1728? / 1945

Is Immortality a bane
That men are so oppressed?

1729? / 1896

I’ve got an arrow here.
Loving the hand that sent it
I the dart revere.

Fell, they will say, in “skirmish”!
Vanquished, my soul will know
By but a simple arrow
Sped by an archer’s bow.

1729JŠ99

Sem zasáhl mě hrot.
Milujíc ruku střelce,
vzdávám šípu hold.

Zhynula, řeknou, v „bitce“!
Zdolána, duše ví,
jediným prostým šípem
z jediné tětivy.

1730? / 1945

“Lethe” in my flower,
Of which they who drink
In the fadeless orchards
Hear the bobolink!

Merely flake or petal
As the Eye beholds
Jupiter! my father!
I perceive the rose!

1731? / 1945

Love can do all but raise the Dead
I doubt if even that
From such a giant were withheld
Were flesh equivalent

But love is tired and must sleep,
And hungry and must graze
And so abets the shining Fleet
Till it is out of gaze.

1732? / 1896

My life closed twice before its close –
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me

So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

1732  Môj život dvakrát skúsil smrťMR83

Môj život dvakrát skúsil smrť …
No musím ešte zažiť,
či nesmrteľnosť nechce ma
po tretie k zemi zraziť

tak beznádejne surovo,
ako po tie dva razy.
Rozlúčka — toľko vieme o nebi,
toľko nám z pekla stačí.

1732JŠ99

Můj život zažil dvakrát smrt.
Teď zbývá nalézti,
zda nesmrtelnost nechystá
mi třetí neštěstí,

to velké, to, co rozumu
se dvakrát vysmeklo.
Rozchod je vše, co známe z nebe,
co stačí na peklo.

1733? / 1945

No man saw awe, nor to his house
Admitted he a man
Though by his awful residence
Has human nature been.

Not deeming of his dread abode
Till laboring to flee
A grasp on comprehension laid
Detained vitality.

Returning is a different route
The Spirit could not show
For breathing is the only work
To be enacted now.

“Am not consumed,” old Moses wrote,
“Yet saw him face to face” –
That very physiognomy
I am convinced was this.

1733LN00

Žádný člověk nespatřil děs – a děs do svého domu
nevpustil člověka,
i když u jeho děsivého sídla
prodlévá lidská přirozenost.

Nemyslel na ten hrůzný příbytek,
dokud snaha uprchnout
ze sevření uvaleného na rozum
nezadržela život.

1734? / 1945

Oh, honey of an hour,
I never knew thy power,
Prohibit me
Till my minutest dower,
My unfrequented flower,
Deserving be.

1735? / 1945

One crown that no one seeks
And yet the highest head
Its isolation coveted
Its stigma deified

While Pontius Pilate lives
In whatsoever hell
That coronation pierces him
He recollects it well.

1736? / 1947

Proud of my broken heart, since thou didst break it,
Proud of the pain I did not feel till thee,

Proud of my night, since thou with moons dost slake it,
Not to partake thy passion, my humility.

Thou can’st not boast, like Jesus, drunken without companion
Was the strong cup of anguish brewed for the Nazarene

Thou can’st not pierce tradition with the peerless puncture,
See! I usurped thy crucifix to honor mine!

1737? / 1945

Rearrange a “Wife’s” affection!
When they dislocate my Brain!
Amputate my freckled Bosom!
Make me bearded like a man!

Blush, my spirit, in thy Fastness –
Blush, my unacknowledged clay –
Seven years of troth have taught thee
More than Wifehood ever may!

Love that never leaped its socket –
Trust entrenched in narrow pain –
Constancy thro’ fire – awarded –
Anguish – bare of anodyne!

Burden – borne so far triumphant –
None suspect me of the crown,
For I wear the “Thorns” till Sunset
Then – my Diadem put on.

Big my Secret but it’s bandaged
It will never get away
Till the Day its Weary Keeper
Leads it through the Grave to thee.

1738? / 1896

Softened by Time’s consummate plush,
How sleek the woe appears
That threatened childhood’s citadel
And undermined the years.

Bisected now, by bleaker griefs,
We envy the despair
That devastated childhood’s realm,
So easy to repair.

1739? / 1929

Some say goodnight – at night –
I say goodnight by day –
Good‑bye – the Going utter me –
Goodnight, I still reply –

For parting, that is night,
And presence, simply dawn –
Itself, the purple on the height
Denominated morn.

1739EK06

„Dobrou noc“ večer říkají –
já za bílého dne.
Vedu si svou – jen „dobrou noc“ –
ač „sbohem“ tvrdí mně.

Vždyť loučení je prostě noc,
být zde – je svítání –
ten purpur, jenž je na nebi,
sám dává jméno dni.

1740? / 1896

Sweet is the swamp with its secrets,
Until we meet a snake;
’Tis then we sigh for houses,
And our departure take
At that enthralling gallop
That only childhood knows.
A snake is summer’s treason,
And guile is where it goes.

1740EK06

Sladká jsou tajemství bažin,
než zaskočí nás had,
pak zachce se nám domů
a začnem utíkat.
Tak úchvatně se běží,
jen dokud dětmi jsme.
Vždyť had je zradou léta
a se lstí plazí se.

1740  HadJŠ67

Sladké je tajemství bažin,
než objeví se had.
Tu zatoužíme domů
a začneme se hnát
tím podmanivým tryskem,
jejž z dětství dobře znám.
Had – to je zrada léta
a všude šíří klam.

1740JŠ06

Sladké je tajemství bažin,
než objeví se had.
Tu zatoužíme domů
a začneme se hnát
tím podmanivým tryskem,
jenž je jen dětství znám.
Had – to je zrada léta
a kam jde, tam je klam.

1741? / 1945

That it will never come again
Is what makes life so sweet.
Believing what we don’t believe
Does not exhilarate.

That if it be, it be at best
An ablative estate –
This instigates an appetite
Precisely opposite.

1741  IstotaMR83

Náš život sladí istota,
že iba raz nám patrí.
Veriť, v čo nik z nás neverí,
len rany väčšmi zjatrí.

Ak bude znova, prinajskôr
bez tela, prázdny bude.
A to v nás veru vzbudzuje
opačné, trpké chute.

1742? / 1896

The distance that the dead have gone
Does not at first appear –
Their coming back seems possible
For many an ardent year.

And then, that we have followed them,
We more than half suspect,
So intimate have we become
With their dear retrospect.

1742  Vzdialenosť, ktorú prešli mŕtviMR83

Vzdialenosť, ktorú prešli mŕtvi,
sa sprvu nezdá taká
veľká. Nejeden na ich návrat
túžobne roky čaká.

Až prejdeme aj my tou cestou
a spoznáme ich žiaľ, kým
na milých doma stále myslia,
pochopíme tie diaľky.

1743? / 1896

The grave my little cottage is,
Where “Keeping house” for thee
I make my parlor orderly
And lay the marble tea.

For two divided, briefly,
A cycle, it may be,
Till everlasting life unite
In strong society.

1743JŠ99

Hrob je má malá chaloupka,
kde, dbajíc o náš ráj,
připravuji svůj salonek
a mramorový čaj.

Pro dva, teď odloučené
jen krátce, pouhý věk,
než v nekonečném životě
si budou náležet.

1744? / 1945

The joy that has no stem nor core,
Nor seed that we can sow,
Is edible to longing,
But ablative to show.

By fundamental palates
Those products are preferred
Impregnable to transit
And patented by pod.

1745? / 1945

The mob within the heart
Police cannot suppress
The riot given at the first
Is authorized as peace

Uncertified of scene
Or signified of sound
But growing like a hurricane
In a congenial ground.

1745  S tou bandou v našom srdciMR83

S tou bandou v našom srdci
si neporadí ani
polícia — veď nepokoj je
za pokoj pokladaný.

Nik nezistí to miesto,
neurčí podľa sily,
kde ako hurikán vie vzklíčiť
nepokoj v srdciach milých.

1745JŠ99

Vzpurný dav uvnitř nás
obušky nezlomí.
Srocení, sběhlé poprvé,
je zákonné jak mír.

Nejisté o scéně,
neznalé účasti,
však sílící jak vichřice
v příhodné oblasti.

1746? / 1945

The most important population
Unnoticed dwell,
They have a heaven each instant
Not any hell.

Their names, unless you know them,
’Twere useless tell.
Of bumble‑bees and other nations
The grass is full.

1747? / 1945

The parasol is the umbrella’s daughter,
And associates with a fan
While her father abuts the tempest
And abridges the rain.

The former assists a siren
In her serene display;
But her father is borne and honored,
And borrowed to this day.

1748? / 1896

The reticent volcano keeps
His never slumbering plan –
Confided are his projects pink
To no precarious man.

If nature will not tell the tale
Jehovah told to her
Can human nature not survive
Without a listener?

Admonished by her buckled lips
Let every babbler be
The only secret people keep
Is Immortality.

1748JŠ99

Mlčící sopka ukrývá
bdící plán v kráteru.
Růžový záměr tají těm,
k nimž nemá důvěru.

Když příroda nám neříká
to, co jí řekl Bůh,
což příroda v nás nesnese,
když nenachází sluch?

Poučen ústy pod zámkem,
ať mluvka zavře rty.
Jedinou tajnost skrýváme,
tu s nesmrtelností.

1749? / 1945

The waters chased him as he fled,
Not daring look behind –
A billow whispered in his Ear,
“Come home with me, my friend –
My parlor is of shriven glass,
My pantry has a fish
For every palate in the Year” –
To this revolting bliss
The object floating at his side
Made no distinct reply.

1750? / 1945

The words the happy say
Are paltry melody
But those the silent feel
Are beautiful –

1751? / 1945

There comes an hour when begging stops,
When the long interceding lips
Perceive their prayer is vain.
“Thou shalt not” is a kinder sword
Than from a disappointing God
“Disciple, call again.”

1752? / 1945

This docile one inter
While we who dare to live
Arraign the sunny brevity
That sparkled to the Grave

On her departing span
No wilderness remain
As dauntless in the House of Death
As if it were her own –

1753? / 1945

Through those old Grounds of memory,
The sauntering alone
Is a divine intemperance
A prudent man would shun.
Of liquors that are vended
’Tis easy to beware
But statutes do not meddle
With the internal bar.
Pernicious as the sunset
Permitting to pursue
But impotent to gather,
The tranquil perfidy
Alloys our firmer moments
With that severest gold
Convenient to the longing
But otherwise withheld.

1754? / 1896

To lose thee – sweeter than to gain
All other hearts I knew.
’Tis true the drought is destitute,
But then, I had the dew!

The Caspian has its realms of sand,
Its other realm of sea.
Without the sterile perquisite,
No Caspian could be.

1755? / 1896

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.

1755JŠ99

Z jetele s jednou včelou se dělá prérie,
z včely a jetele
a fantazie.
Z pouhé fantazie se dělá,
když není včela.

1756? / 1945

’Twas here my summer paused
What ripeness after then
To other scene or other soul
My sentence had begun.

To winter to remove
With winter to abide
Go manacle your icicle
Against your Tropic Bride.

1756  Zima v tropechJH77

Zde léto pro mne ustalo.
Pro jiný kraj a jinou duši jest,
co potom ještě uzrálo.
Pro mne teď začal trest –

tu zimu překonat,
zimou se proklestit.
Rozpouštěj si své rampouchy
před tropy své nevěsty.

1757? / 1896

Upon the gallows hung a wretch,
Too sullied for the hell
To which the law entitled him.
As nature’s curtain fell
The one who bore him tottered in, –
For this was woman’s son.
“’Twas all I had,” she stricken gasped –
Oh, what a livid boon!

1758? / 1896

Where every bird is bold to go
And bees abashless play,
The foreigner before he knocks
Must thrust the tears away.

1758EK06

Klidně tam může každý pták,
včely tam skotačí,
však cizinec, než zaklepe,
ať slzy zatlačí.

1759? / 1945

Which misses most,
The hand that tends,
Or heart so gently borne,
’Tis twice as heavy as it was
Because the hand is gone?
Which blesses most,
The lip that can,
Or that that went to sleep
With “if I could” endeavoring
Without the strength to shape?

1760c. 1882 / 1890

Elysium is as far as to
The very nearest Room
If in that Room a Friend await
Felicity or Doom –

What fortitude the Soul contains,
That it can so endure
The accent of a coming Foot –
The opening of a Door –

1760  OčekáváníJH77

Elysium není vzdálenější
než pokoj nejbližší,
když tam čeká přítel,
radost nebo neštěstí.

Jakou sílu v sobě duše má,
že snese, když se šeří,
zvuk blížících se kroků,
otevření dveří.

1760  Podsvetné nebo nie je ďalejMR83

Podsvetné nebo nie je ďalej
než izba vedia, keď ťa v nej
čaká osud či dobrý priateľ,
radosť alebo nešťastie.

Akú však odvahu má duša,
že vydrží des na tvári,
zvuk krokov, čo sa blížia, búšia,
a niekto dvere otvára …

1760JŠ99

K ráji je přes práh, jako do
vedlejší místnosti,
kde přítele buď odsoudí,
anebo oprostí.

Kolik je v duši hrdinství,
že může vydržet
zvuk přibližujících se bot
a pohled na dveře.

1761? / 1890

A train went through a burial gate,
A bird broke forth and sang,
And trilled, and quivered, and shook his throat
Till all the churchyard rang;

And then adjusted his little notes,
And bowed and sang again.
Doubtless, he thought it meet of him
To say good‑by to men.

1762? / 1898

Were nature mortal lady
  Who had so little time
To pack her trunk and order
  The great exchange of clime –

How rapid, how momentous –
  What exigencies were –
But nature will be ready
  And have an hour to spare.

To make some trifle fairer
  That was too fair before –
Enchanting by remaining,
  And by departure more.

1763? / 1898

Fame is a bee.
  It has a song –
It has a sting –
  Ah, too, it has a wing.

1763  SlávaMR83

Sláva je včela.
Spieva si veľa,
má žihadlo.
A nezabudni na krídlo.

1764? / 1898

The saddest noise, the sweetest noise,
  The maddest noise that grows, –
The birds, they make it in the spring,
  At night’s delicious close.

Between the March and April line –
  That magical frontier
Beyond which summer hesitates,
  Almost too heavenly near.

It makes us think of all the dead
  That sauntered with us here,
By separation’s sorcery
  Made cruelly more dear.

It makes us think of what we had,
  And what we now deplore.
We almost wish those siren throats
  Would go and sing no more.

An ear can break a human heart
  As quickly as a spear,
We wish the ear had not a heart
  So dangerously near.

1764  PředjaříJH77

Zvuk smutný nade vše a sladký
  blázní a stále sílí –
to ptáci jsou, když jarní noc
  se k svému konci chýlí.

Začarovaná hranice
  od dubna březen dělí.
I když tak blízko léto je,
  ještě se neosmělí.

Je čas teď mrtvých vzpomínat –
  s námi se toulávali,
než krutým kouzlem ztraceni
  tak drahými se stali.

Je čas teď vzpomínat všech ztrát,
  nic nevrátí je zpět.
Kéž by raděj skončily
  ty sirény svůj zpěv.

Sluch někdy lidské srdce
  jak dýkou rozetne.
Neb od ucha bývá k srdci
  blízko tak bolestně.

1764JŠ06

Ten smutný hluk, ten sladký hluk,
ten hluk, co divě zní –
ptáci jej zjara dělají,
když noc se slastně dní.

Když březen má už k dubnu blíž,
k té bájné hranici,
za kterou léto postává,
z nebe se blížící.

To nutí myslet na mrtvé,
co s námi dlívali,
dík krutým kouzlům odluky
dražší, než bývali.

To nutí myslet, co jsi měl
a co jsi oplakal.
Snad chcem, ať hrdla sirén už
jsou pryč, nepějí dál.

Ucho nám srdce probodne
tak rychle, jako šíp,
dál od ucha, pro bezpečí,
by bylo srdci líp.

1765? / 1914

That Love is all there is,
Is all we know of Love;
It is enough, the freight should be
Proportioned to the groove.

1765JŠ99

Že láska je vše, co je,
je vše, co víš o lásce;
to postačí, náklad má být
úměrný vozovce.

1765EK06

Láska je vše, co je,
toť vše, co o ní vím,
a stačí to, vždyť náklad je
úměrný kolejím.

1766? / 1914

Those final Creatures, – who they are –
That, faithful to the close,
Administer her ecstasy,
But just the Summer knows.

1766JŠ06

Ti pozdní tvorové – kdo jsou,
do konce hotoví
spravovat jeho extázi –
to pouze léto ví.

1767? / 1924

Sweet hours have perished here;
  This is a mighty room;
Within its precincts hopes have played, –
  Now shadows in the tomb.

1768c. 1883 / 1931

Lad of Athens, faithful be
To Thyself,
And Mystery –
All the rest is Perjury –

1769? / 1894

The longest day that God appoints
Will finish with the sun.
Anguish can travel to its stake,
And then it must return.

1769JŠ99

Nejdelší den, jejž určí Bůh,
se sluncem chodí spát.
Úzkost smí dojít k hranici
a potom musí zpět.

1770c. 1870 / 1945

Experiment escorts us last –
His pungent company
Will not allow an Axiom
An Opportunity

1770JŠ99

Pokus nás vede eskortou –
kousavý průvodce,
jenž nepřipustí axiom
k slovu až do konce.

1771c. 1881 / 1945

How fleet – how indiscreet an one –
How always wrong is Love –
The joyful little Deity
We are not scourged to serve –

1772c. 1881 / 1945

Let me not thirst with this Hock at my Lip,
Nor beg, with Domains in my Pocket –

1773c. 1883 / 1945

The Summer that we did not prize,
Her treasures were so easy
Instructs us by departing now
And recognition lazy –

Bestirs itself – puts on its Coat,
And scans with fatal promptness
For Trains that moment out of sight,
Unconscious of his smartness.

1774c. 1870 / 1945

Too happy Time dissolves itself
And leaves no remnant by –
’Tis Anguish not a Feather hath
Or too much weight to fly –

1774JŠ99

Čas štěstí sám se rozplyne
a sotva co z něj přečká.
To tísni křídla chybějí,
či k létání je těžká.

1774EK06

Tak šťastně se čas rozpouští,
nezanechává stop –
muka však křídla nemají
a sílu ulétnout.

1775? / 1945

The earth has many keys.
Where melody is not
Is the unknown peninsula.
Beauty is nature’s fact.

But witness for her land,
And witness for her sea,
The cricket is her utmost
Of elegy to me.
Janě a všem, kdo zůstávají