# Modern Czech Poetry/Shakespeare

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6. SHAKESPEARE.
Nuž hleďte sem!
Zde soudce spravedlivý
žen milujících, vzteklých furií, žebráků, bláznů, tichých filosofů, pijáků řemeslných, žoldnéřů a čarodějnic, elfů z pohádky —
všem duše bědné svlekl do naha, že stojí tu jak křišťál průhlední, všem otevírá nitra svědomí, by ukázal, co bylo posledním důvodem činů jejich.
Není pak
od krále mocného až k žebráku, jenž bídu svoji vleče ulicí, je vše jen člověk, Soudí člověka a orteluje nezvratně jak Osud; krev prolít dá, a jest jen náhodou,
6. SHAKESPEARE.
Now gaze ye hither!
Lo, a righteous judge
Set in the midst of monarchs, lords and knights,
Amorous women, raging termagants, Mendicants, fools, placid philosophers, Carousing artisans, hired soldiery, Wizards and elfin sprites from fairy-land.
The wretched soul he utterly stripped bare, Leaving it clear as crystal. Utterly The inmost parts of conscience he revealed That he might show whereby in very sooth Its deeds were prompted.
Nor can bias hold
Sway over men before his countenance:
From the great king unto the mendicant Who drags his misery along the street, All are but man. He judges man and passes Sentence as unrelentingly as Fate: He has blood spilt, and it is naught but hazard
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že často bývá krev to urozených, i královská krev hříchy zčernalá, I krále možno soudit, praví přísně a časem nutno soudit.
Spravedlnost,
jím odsouzena k trestu pranýře. On ctnostem, jimž se pálí kadidlo, strh zrůžovělou masku s obličeje a ejhle, nevěstky to bezstoudné a všechny mají hlavy umrlčí, jichž výdech páchne hrobním zápachem. On tresce zlo, jež v otrávený květ ze hrudi lidské bylo vyspělo, a tresce to i, jež se nevinně tam choulí v nerozvitém poupěti.
A není odvolání z soudu jeho; nebesa, slunce, hvězdy, celý svět — ti diváky jen soudů jeho jsou. A bůh? Vždyť je-li, i svůj božský soud moh' vyslovovat by jen jeho rtem!
„Apoštolové“ (1911).
If oft 'tis wont to be the blood of rank, And royal blood sullied with sins. For he Can even judge a king and sternly pass Verdict upon him, and thereof is need At sundry seasons.
Righteousness, the which
Is in the pay of this world's potentates,
By him is sentenced to the pillory. From virtue, which has incense burnt before it, The rose-hued mask he wrenches, and behold, Abandoned strumpets, having each and all, A death's head, and the breathing of them reeks With stenches of the tomb. He punisheth Evil which to a poisoned flower has bred Thrivingly out of mortal breast. And that He likewise punisheth, which guiltlessly Is there entwined in the unshapen bud.
And from his judgment there is no appeal: The sky, the sun, the stars and all the world, —
These are but the beholders of his judgments. And God? If such there be, then e'en God's judgment Can be pronounced but by the lips of him!
“The Apostles” (1911).
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
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 53 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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