Hanging on the gallows. Dry as coarse hay.
Hanging on the prison wall. A wall of shame.
Black villainous pit under it, of ill fame,
Place of ******, dark as the foulest play.
I saw that hem somewhere, one rural day,
For my mother's face had that kind of a frame,
And similar eyes I had seen on a dame:
To what a place had I been led astray!
And in her stead I jumped in that fatal hole
And with her bloodied sweat wet as a dark shoal,
As with tears, my insolent cheek I drowned.
For my sweet Croatia they hanged and disgraced,
Like a common thief, as her name is erased,
For the sake of who knows who, by lawmen in bounds!
Translation of a patriotic poem by Antun Gustav Matoš, a Croatian modernist poet, written on the hundred year anniversary of the birth of Ljudevit Gaj. The poem is said to be inspired by a somber dream. I tried to keep the rhyming system and the number of syllables; hopefully that hasn't damaged the poem's quality.
Translated on 6th of January, 1E 2015.
abba abba ccd eed
10 11 11 10, 10 11 11 10, 11 11 10, 11 11 12
