Poetry Codex

Russian & Slavic

Vítězslav Hálek

1835–1874

Vítězslav Hálek (1835–1874) was a Czech poet, prose writer and journalist, a leading figure of the Czech literary generation of the 1850s and 1860s. His lyric collection Večerní písně (Evening Songs, 1859) made his name with its tender, song-like poems of love and nature.

The poems here are drawn from Joseph Štýbr's English translation of Evening Songs, published in Boston in 1920.

Poems (67)

  1. The spring came flying from afar
  2. I am the knight from the old tale
  3. The humming of the trees has ceased
  4. Though all the world has gone to sleep
  5. Stars by the hundreds dot the sky
  6. What charm is there in love for us
  7. God summoned me to Paradise
  8. If that poor nightingale
  9. Should I tell Thee the secret tale
  10. My sweetheart, come, kneel down with me
  11. I am a linden with large crown
  12. So often it appears to me
  13. Thou art still but a youthful bud
  14. That nightingale has not retired
  15. Thou maiden, charming most of all
  16. It happened. My soul minus Thee
  17. When I gaze at Thee, darling mine
  18. Thy beautiful eye is a lake
  19. My sweetheart, come, sit close to me
  20. Once as I through the golden stars
  21. The stars upon the heavens there
  22. The greatest hero is not he
  23. The heavens are replete with stars
  24. Upon the sky the moon and stars
  25. The scorching heat of noonday sun
  26. Tell wherein thou hast sinned, my heart
  27. If all the world lost its delight
  28. What matters it what in sweet songs
  29. My sweetheart, I dreamt Thou hadst died
  30. When God felt His supreme delight
  31. So many, many things there are
  32. Up in the oak tree a dove wailed
  33. The night is fair and transparent
  34. Those stars, those fair wee little stars
  35. I do not know, was it a dream
  36. That deep and dark blue heavens’ bowl
  37. That little bird sings all the time
  38. Deep silence reigns—it seems to me
  39. It seemed to me—Grief had grown old
  40. I thought to myself, with no love
  41. There were two thoughts, two thoughts of God
  42. That young little singer there
  43. As in the sky rises the moon
  44. Ye all who deem yourselves oppressed
  45. The day and night went each their way
  46. Thou hast laid Thy hand on my head
  47. Of my songs I shall build Thy throne
  48. Don’t wonder, shouldst Thou chance to hear
  49. The God’s world is so far and wide
  50. Hey, in the rounds what pleasure
  51. Ye little, ye wee little birds
  52. My pillow was of sorrow made
  53. ’Tis wrong for men to lack in song
  54. My lips were lockt a long, long time
  55. When I shall trust my corpse to earth
  56. My God, of all things I aspire
  57. Blest is the man whom the Lord’s hand
  58. Much has been trusted to Thy hands
  59. I bade the trumpets to be blown
  60. He who can strike the golden strings
  61. At prophets cast ye never stones
  62. From heaven angels come to earth
  63. Now go, my darling children, go
  64. In the sky the moon was standing
  65. He’s going far from home
  66. The moon sails slowly in the sky
  67. My sweetheart, look at those two clouds

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