Page:The Queens Court Manuscript with Other Ancient Bohemian Poems, 1852, Cambridge edition.djvu/80

 And harp in hand before them all
 * In the lowest vale he stood.

“O men of brotherly heart and true!
 * “O men of fiery gaze!

“I sing to you from lowliest vale
 * “The lowliest of lays.

“That lay, it springeth from my heart,
 * “From my bosom’s deep recess,

“And sunk and drown’d in woe it tells
 * “My soul’s deep bitterness.

“A sire his wives and children left,
 * “And to his sires is gone;

“He left them in their village home,
 * “But ah! he said to none,

“‘O brother! speak a father’s words,
 * “‘To these thus left alone.’

“A stranger to the village came
 * “With violence and wrong,

“He came and told a foreign tale
 * “All in a foreign tongue.

“And as it is done in foreign lands
 * “From morn till eve arrives,