8. Rosemary on the Prague Bridge
Kateřina Konvalinová
If you happen to be in Prague and are walking Godknowswhy on the right bank of the Vltava, let yourself be carried by the current of tourists towards the Mánes Building, or the former Mánes Building, to be exact. The building itself is not particularly interesting these days, but nevertheless, you can find a delightful little manifestation of civic gardening just a couple steps away. It’s a huge planter, an element of the Jirásek Bridge’s massive architecture. In fact, there are three or even four of these planters, but I have not been able to find the fourth. Each of them lives its own life – but that is another story. Today, we will focus our attention on the one in which someone had planted a rosemary plant, which in turn allowed an old, well-known folk song to become a living legend.
However, we are standing by the so-called “Prague Viaduct” in Brno, where these two places meet in time and space via a sprout of rosemary.
If you pass by, you can tend to it a bit, and hum the following song in the meantime:
Audio stop translation:
On a bridge in Prague/
Rosemary is growing/
No one brings it water/
But it still is growing/
It is always growing
And on a bridge in Brno/
Rosemary is growing/
No one brings it water/
But it still is growing/
It is always growing
When you walk on past there/
You can bring it water/
It will bloom and be green/
And continue growing/
it will bloom and be green/
And continue growing/
Rosemary
Is growing
