# The Soul Of A Century/Sonnets

Selection of translations of sonnets from the Kollár’s cycle The Daughter of Sláva
SONNETS
1.
It is not the earth, nor wholly the starry skies That are reflected in her slender mould: It is holiness ensnared in beauty’s hold, A soul divine that in her body lies.
One moment love consumes her; the next she sighs, Refusing love, the heavens she would enfold: Runs to your arms as a lightning, fast and bold, Her glowing forehead, the starry world defies.
Yes, I suspect that some omnipresent power She borrowed from the very Gods above, ’Cause in my eyes and mind she lingers every hour.
O, tell me lovely object of my love, Are you a clod? Then I shall not grieve in vain. Are you an angel? I shall worship you again.
2.
By these lips, your heart’s untrodden sill, ’Fore your eyes, the blossoms of your soul, My eternal love I now extol: Take this as a promise I must fill.
Life is ruled by Time that aims to kill; Time that beckons us beyond its realm, There and here I’m yours with love at helm. The stars and heavens bear witness to my will.
On this drifting cloud I am descending, I, who pity you, who am your Fate, Hush your pledges, faced with strife unending.
Peace and strife I’ll separate past mending, Till somewhere, but when, I cannot state I will bind you in a joyous ending.
3
Love, O love, you sweet untamed deceit, Sparkling goblet filled with sheer delight, Wherein kindred souls are bound in plight, In one passion, earth and heavens meet.
If we could only see your charms replete, While hid beyond some thicket, still as night, Ere the winds in their destructive might Wreck our sails and bring us to defeat.
Where, O sister of the Gods Immortal, Are you, faithless guest within my heart, Child of gladness, keeper of grief’s portal?
I have hastened vainly to your bower, While a north wind tore my rose apart Leaving sharpened thorns as it took the flower.
4.
Dearest relic of my youthful days Tresses interwove with purest gold You deserve that Pope your life unfold That the bard of Illiad proclaim your praise.
Offer me a golden fleece or the stars’ bright rays Give me palaces with a Sultan’s wealth untold, I would not trade you, memory of old, Not for all the worldly wealth ablaze.
Guard the key to my heart’s beating fire, Teach it e’er to hold in cold disdain Hollow beauty and untamed desire.
Some day, when the winds my dust will scatter, Lose yourself among the stars again, Where Berenice’s Locks the heavens flatter.
5.
Mountains, mountains! Listen, I implore, Climb atop each others stony face, Build a ladder for me into space, That I may behold her evermore. Mountains, mountains! Listen, I implore!
Rivers, rivers, hear me from the shore, Ere you reach your distant ocean base, Have compassion, my grief to embrace Take my tears to her unsheltered door. Rivers, rivers, hear me from the shore.
Why be still? Go waft to her my sighs, Cool winds blow into that distant land, Let your speed grow greater with my cries. Why be still? Go waft to her my sighs.
Take me to her, or else bring her here, Mystic spirits lend your helping hand, Haste your steps through darkness, storm and fear, Take me to her, or else bring her here.
6.
How to welcome you, with a tear or a song? Like a mother or a foster mother? Land once honored now despised by another, Rich with godly good and godly wrong? Your castles now to owls and snakes belong, A stranger roams your plains, and not your brother, Your lions, mighty once, now weakly totter, And weakness lurks where freemen should be strong. To Vltava speed forth each grief-born tear, Like rains and lightning crashing from the skies, Carry these words for the sons of Slavs to hear: “Cease bickerings that brought your downfall near, List to your people, not to some jackal’s cries, The names of both St. John and Hus hold dear.”
7.
Hear me Slavs, men of a discordant soul, Living constantly in bitter enmity, Get together and in unity Learn a lesson from the burning coal. There, together in a glowing whole, Each coal heats and burns in jollity, But alone without security Slowly dies and reaches not its goal. Hand in hand, unite to please your mother, Every Russian, Serb and Czech and Pole, Live like one great clan in peace together. Only thus no wars nor hatred of another Can destroy your Nation’s mighty role, You’ll stand firm, none dare your life to smother.
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.