38o A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE

" Thus then did kiss my love : the forehead downward to the chin, then

" On this

in

I

from shape of a cross from

the

voyage twice

I

one

little ear to the other.

of her

reached the little rose-garden

lips,

through which my soul enters into hers."

Of the sonnets of the second canto I shall quote one in which Kollar's enthusiasm for " Slavia," the Slav world, which he distinguishes from the goddess " Sldva," He writes : —

appears most clearly.

" Slavia, Slavia memory

!

hundred

Thou name of sweet sound but of bitter times divided and destroyed, but yet more

honoured than ever.

"From

Ural Mountains

summit of the Carpathians, from the deserts near the equator to the lands of the setting sun, thy kingdom extends. " Much hast thou suffered, but ever hast thou survived the evil the

to the

of thy enemies, the evil ingratitude also of thy sons. " While others have built on soft ground, thou hast

deeds

thy throne on the

ruins of fuany

established

centuries.^'

One of the sonnets of the third book contains a curious prophecy of the future greatness of the Slav Kollar writes : — race. " What will

us Slavs a century hence 1 manners, as the floods of a deluge,

become

of

what of all

will extend Slavic their strength in every direction. " That language, which the Germans falsely believed to be but Europe

?

a dialect

fit for

slaves,

will

be

heard even u'nder the ceilings of

and in the mouths of our very enemies. " By means of the Slav language science will

palaces

dress, the customs, Seine

and on

the

the songs

be the

Our

fashion on the

Elbe.

" Oh t had it but

when the Slavs " my tomb /

of our people will

be developed.

will

granted to me to be born at that time rule, or might at least then rise again from been

I