Page:An Anthology of Modern Bohemian Poetry.pdf/8

4 was made largely as a result of personal likings, and it is difficult to see how a translator can adopt any other course, if he is to do justice to his originals. As a result, however, it is necessary to point out that the relative importance of a poet does not always correspond to the number of poems by which he is here represented. It is, of course, only fitting that poets like Březina, Sova and Vrchlický should appear as often as they do. But, on the other hand, Neruda and Čech have only one poem each to their credit, which, to some, may appear a somewhat meagre allowance. This is true, to a certain extent, of Heyduk, Machar, and Zeyer. In the main, however, this collection will be found to be fairly representative of the poetical output in the Bohemian language during the last twenty or thirty years.

As regards the translations themselves, they have been made as literal as possible, and the metres of the originals have been reproduced as far as the varying rhythms of the two languages permitted. In the case of Kollár's elegy, this has led to the somewhat risky experiment of writing English hexameters and pentameters. It should be pointed out that those poems which appear in rhymeless metres (chiefly those translated from Březina) are rhymeless in the original.

My best thanks are due to the Editor of the "New Age," by whose courtesy I am permitted to reprint certain of these translations.

In conclusion, I have much pleasure in acknow-