Nature
When God felt His supreme delight
Translated by Joseph Štýbr (1920) · From Evening Songs (Večerní písně), trans. Štýbr (1920)
When God felt His supreme delight,
The human heart He molded
And for eternal memory
His love in it He folded.
And as He gazed upon the heart
With eyes divine, forseeing,
He wept, for He was overjoyed
To see the blissful being.
But as He wept, one of His tears,
Unnoticed, the heart entered,
As dew falls in a flower cup,
And near the bottom centered.
That is why love is a great grief,
But grief so sweet and charming
That pitied must be all the hearts
That have escaped its harming.
That is why love is half of bliss
And half of grief a token,
But if the tear swells to a wave,
Then some heart may be broken.
Cite this poem
MLA
Hálek, Vítězslav. “When God felt His supreme delight.” Translated by Joseph Štýbr. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/halek/29/.
Chicago
Hálek, Vítězslav. “When God felt His supreme delight.” Translated by Joseph Štýbr. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/halek/29/.
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