Nature

My sweetheart, come, sit close to me

by Vítězslav Hálek 1835–1874

Translated by Joseph Štýbr (1920) · From Evening Songs (Večerní písně), trans. Štýbr (1920)

Nature

My sweetheart, come, sit close to me,
Allow me to embrace Thee;
The Lord gave Thee an angel’s soul
From heaven, just to grace Thee.

I feel that I should speak to Thee
And make confessions often,
But my words stay locked in my mouth
And dead as in a coffin.

And often what I’d like to say
Appears unutterable,
For, though the soul is filled with it,
The tongue to speak’s unable.

But as I wind my arm ’round Thee
And my soul in Thine enters,
I feel as though Thou knowest all
What on my tongue then centres.

MLA

Hálek, Vítězslav. “My sweetheart, come, sit close to me.” Translated by Joseph Štýbr. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/halek/18/.

Chicago

Hálek, Vítězslav. “My sweetheart, come, sit close to me.” Translated by Joseph Štýbr. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/halek/18/.

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