| Author | unknown |
| Genre | Lyric, Poem |
| Keywords | 14th century, love song, lyric, Old Czech |
| Title (in Czech) | Tajná žalost |
| Title (in English translation) | A Secret Sorrow |
| Editor | Andrea Svobodová – Kateřina Voleková |
| Translator | Walter Schamschula |
| Edited source | Praha, Národní knihovna České republiky, XVII F 9, fol. IIr |
| Introduction | Walter Schamschula – Andrea Svobodová |
| TEI P5 XML Encoding | Matěj Čermák – Michal Mocňák – Ondřej Tichý |
| Summary of content | An Old Czech love song in which a lover expresses his anguish at the departure of his beloved. |
Introduction to the Text
Tajná žalost (‘A Secret Sorrow’) is one of the best Old Czech love songs. It constitutes part of the so-called Vyšehrad Codex, a major portion of which consists of works by Tomáš Štítný ze Štítného (Thomas of Štítné, c. 1333-1405). It is interesting in its stanzaic pattern: alternating rhyme (abab), which is quite unusual for the second half of the 14th century, its probable date of origin. This is syllabic poetry with each verse composed of eight syllables.
Introduction to the Sources
The song has been preserved in a single copy within a codex from 1396 (Praha, Národní knihovna České republiky, XVII F 9, fol. IIr; available online).
About this Edition
The given transcription was made according to the manuscript, taking into account the edition of Walter Schamschula (cf. Schamschula 1991, see Existing editions below).
The present translation has been taken, with the permission of Walter Schamschula, from the text of his edition. No textual changes have been made to the text, and only obvious typographical errors have been removed (cf. Schamschula 1991, see Existing editions below). The introductory information, based on Schamschula´s edition, has been supplemented from new contributions on the topic.
Existing Editions
Tajná žalost, in: Staročeská lyrika, Jan Vilikovský (ed.), Praha 1940, pp. 31-32 [standardized transcription].
Výbor z české literatury od počátků po dobu Husovu, Bohuslav Havránek a kol. (eds.), Praha 1957, p. 398 [standardized transcription].
Tajná žalost, in: Česká středověká lyrika, Jan Lehár (ed.), Praha 1990, p. 216 [standardized transcription].
Tajná žalost/A secret sorrow, in: An Anthology of Czech Literature. 1st Period: from the Beginnings until 1410, Walter Schamschula (ed.), Frankfurt am Main – Bern – New York – Paris 1991, pp. 75-76 [standardized transcription].
Existing translations
Tajná žalost/A secret sorrow, in: An Anthology of Czech Literature. 1st Period: from the Beginnings until 1410, Walter Schamschula (ed.), Frankfurt am Main – Bern – New York – Paris 1991, pp. 75-76.
Further Reading
Vilikovský, Jan: Staročeská lyrika, Praha 1940, p. 176.
Jakobson, Roman: Verš staročeský, Československá vlastivěda 3, 1934, pp. 429-459.
