THE GREAT OUTBURST OF SONG

Far from silencing him, Franko's second imprisonment in 1880 seems only to have stimulated his poetic powers and urged him to give expression to them in a great outburst of lyricism. The themes were reflections of the impressions made on him by nature, burning protests against injustice, challenges to labor for human betterment, and expressions of fervent patriotism. The months of March, April and May were spent in Kolomiya Prison and it was here that much of his verse in 1880 was written. The dates appended to them give a clue to the poet's changes of mood and feeling during the period.

SPRING SONG

Old Winter marvelled much

    To see the melting snow

And how the cracking ice

    Set free the water's flow.

Old Winter wondered why

    He felt no more so stout,

From whence the breezes came

    Which spread a warmth about.

Old Winter marvelled much

    Because cadi day the earth

Exhaled a sweeter smell

    And brought new life to birth.

Old Winter marvelled much

    To see, despite the snow,

That flowerets from the earth

    Began their heads to show.

Old Winter fiercely blew,

    Sent forth an icy blast,

And with a pall of snow

    He tried to hold them fast.

The flowerets in alarm

    Closed up as though in pain,

But when the squall had passed

    They raised their heads again.

Old Winter marvelled more

    That he could not prevail

F'en over tiny flowerets

    To make his strength avail.

March 27,1880

        SPRING SCENE

The sun already shining strong

Is at its spring work on the soil,

And once again the rolling fields

Exact from men their sweat and toil.

Down in the clear and quiet stream

The silvery fishes sport and speed,

While over last year's stubble brown

The lean cows limp in search of feed.

The woods ring with the song of birds,

The cuckoo strikes his bell-like sound.

Along the road in his fine rig,

The tax-collector makes his round.

March 28, 1880

        WHAT LIFE GAVE

I have not lived long in this world,

Yet I have learned to take account

Of what I got from life—not much,

But none the less, a fair amount.

It taught me to perceive the good,

Gave me a glimpse of learning's wealth,

Put love for justice in my soul,

Gave me two Eands to work and health.

It gave me friendship, mutual love,

Although not always strong and deep.

It said: "Go sow thy seed, although

Thy hand may not the harvest reap."

It also gave me enemies

Who cursed and persecuted me;

It gave me friends who yet were prone

First their own interests to see.

Yet over all I value most

The cup of unjust suffering

Life gave to me, that truth and light

I might perhaps to others bring.

April 1.1880

        REMEMBRANCE

Into die sea of tears that violence

Hath long exacted, I have poured my own.

To rear the shrine built by man's sacrifice

For liberty, I too have brought a stone.

Then when, bought by the tears by millions shed,

There comes at length the day of liberty

And love and justice—in that shrine perhaps,

Some soul may graciously remember me.

April 2, 1880

        SEMPER IDEM

Swim against the tide,

Press against the goad,

Dauntless unto death,

Bear thy heavy load.

Justice against force,

War to help the weak,

For a people cowed,

Liberty to speak.

None so far has forged

Sword for senseless hand

To destroy for aye

Freedom from the land.

There is yet no fire

Can consume in flame

Deeds by spirit wrought—

Only man's weak frame!

April 3,1880

        THE ENEMY

The folk are not our enemies,

Although they hound and persecute

And shut us up in prison cells

And mock us with loud hiss and hoot.

For what are they but like the stones

Which spring bursts from the river's bed

And which the river bears along

In torrents when its waters spread?

The evil lies not in the folk,

But in the unseen bonds which still

Entangle both the strong and weak

In mutual pain and deeds of ill.

A new Laocoon, snake bound,

The people fight in bondage wrapped.
Alas! when shall those dreadful bonds

Be from the giant's body snapped ?

April 9, 1880

        FORSAKEN

My fellows have forsaken me!

They all, whenever they draw near,

Pass on and look askance at me

What is it that my fellows fear

Amidst the noise of city streets

I wander like a beast forlorn.

My heart says in reproachful tones:

"Thou art accursed and hence their scorn.

I walk in loneliness 'mongst crowds,

All those I know pass on, they go—

My heart is bowed with heavy grief,

There's none with whom to share my woe.

Could I wash out this heavy woe

With bloody tears of pain again,

I'd gladly weep out all my blood

That naught should bar me from all men.

November 14,1880.