Who’s never set foot on the Trenčín heights,
Or ranged along the Váh with happy tread
Will find his soul incapable of flight,
Unable to lift high his sluggish head
Where spirits, borne aloft on wing unfurled
Soar through the sky, and seem to rule the world,
Over one hundred Mountains as they sweep
And tremble over myriad pied vales,
Now over Poland to climb swift and steep,
Above Moravian summits now to sail,
Then down toward the Váh once more to swing
And, home on Nitra’s aerie, fold the wing.
Matúš of Trenčín
Matúš of TrenčínIt is the vanished glory of Great Moravia, of its capital, Slovak Nitra, that fires Matúš to his patriotic warring against the foreign usurper Robert, and it is no coincidence that Štúr describes his first triumphs thus:
On daring wings the soul, embold
