Page:Three stories by Vítězslav Hálek (1886).pdf/131

 And if in one of those two hearts

Untimely fades love’s blossom,

Also a golden star falls prone

From heaven’s eternal bosom.

That birdie that sings in the tree

As himself were the song that he singeth,—

Hearts wonder not that he so sings

Where love’s divine harmony springeth.

Oh! that bird he so sings from the heart

To the heart of the hearer believe it,

He might force e’en a mortal to weep

With a heart that’s attuned to receive it.

And methinks that his plaintive refrain

To my own songs is closely related,

For this the light foam of my lyre

Is only a dirge iterated.

What silence reigns around as when

A dream o’er weary eyes descends,

As when the bird in downy nest

Her callow offspring tends.

So gently might her pinions fold

Above the star bespangled skies,

And haply many a heart shall gain

What carking day denies.