Page:Bohemian legends and other poems.djvu/33

 Here, where my childhood’s days were spent;
 * Here, where my father’s bones were laid;

Where I in manhood’s strength have lived,
 * And wed your mother, beauteous maid;

Where you were born, my children dear; And loved, and honored, far and near,
 * We must forsake, and wander far
 * In banishment, oh evil star!

Our mildest punishment to roam—
 * Made beggars in an evil time,

Banished from everything we love—
 * Made butts for every idle rhyme.”

Then dropping poison in his glass, He smiling drank, and said, “Alas,
 * That I should ask, ‘Who goes to death?’”
 * We all,” they answered with one breath.

We all,” they answered with one breath.
 * And merrily the goblet went:

From hand to hand they passed it on,
 * And thirteen drank as on it went.

Father and mother, child and youth, The bride, and bridegroom, all, forsooth,
 * Drank gladly of the deadly wine.
 * They praised the cup, they praised the wine.

Twelve o’clock struck; they heard the bell
 * Call out to prayer in the night;

They prayed to God in prayers low,
 * To help them in the deadly fight.

One whispered, then his voice was still. Another fell, against his will,
 * But seven lived the light burnt low,
 * Then out it went they all lay low.

So Kryspek and his family died,
 * United in a common death;

The bride and bridegroom, hand in hand,
 * Sat by each other cold in death.

Hand clasped in hand, around the board, They found them, but their souls had soared
 * Beyond their tyrant’s little might,
 * Into the everlasting light.