The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 03 - Коллектив авторов 5 стр.

  What the God taughtwhat has befriended all
  Life's ways, I place upon the Votive Wall.

  The Good's the Flower to Earth already given
    The Beautiful, on Earth sows flowers from Heaven!

  If thou hast something, bring thy goodsa fair return be thine;
  If thou art something, bring thy soul and interchange with mine.

  To know thyselfin others self discern;
  Wouldst thou know others? Read thyselfand learn!

  Yes, in the moral world, as ours, we see
  Divided gradesa Soul's Nobility;
  By deeds their titles Commoners create
  The loftier order are by birthright great.[5]

  Spreads Life's true mystery round us evermore,
  Seen by no eye, it lies all eyes before.

  Wouldst thou the loftiest height of Wisdom gain?
  On to the rashness, Prudence would disdain;
  The purblind see but the receding shore,
  Not that to which the bold wave wafts thee o'er!

  Truth seek we bothThou, in the life without thee and around;
  I in the Heart withinby both can Truth alike be found;
  The healthy eye can through the world the great Creator track
  The healthy heart is but the glass which gives creation back.

  All that thou dost be rightto that alone confine thy view,
  And halt within the certain rulethe All that's right to do!
  True zeal the what already is would sound and perfect see;
  False zeal would sound and perfect make the something that's to be!

  Of the Nebulæ and planets do not babble so to me;
  What! is Nature only mighty inasmuch as you can see?
  Inasmuch as you can measure her immeasurable ways,
  As she renders world on world, sun and system to your gaze?
  Though through space your object be the Sublimest to embrace,
  Never the Sublime abidethwhere you vainly searchin space!

  How the best state to know?It is found out,
  Like the best womenthat least talked about.

  What thy religion? Those thou namestnone!
  None! Why?Because I have religion!

  Dear is my friendyet from my foe, as from my friend, comes good;
  My friend shows what I can do, and my foe shows what I should.

  Dwell, Light, beside the changeless GodGod spoke and Light began;
  Come, thou, the ever-changing onecome, Color, down to Man!

  Womanto judge man rightlydo not scan
  Each separate act;pass judgment on the Man!

  Intellect can repeat what's been fulfill'd,
  And, aping Nature, as she buildethbuild;
  O'er Nature's base can haughty Reason dare
  To pile its lofty castlein the air.
  But only thine, O Genius, is the charge,
  In Nature's kingdom Nature to enlarge!

  Good out of goodthat art is known to all
  But Genius from the bad the good can call;
  Then, Mimic, not from leading-strings escaped,
  Work'st but the matter that's already shaped
  The already-shaped a nobler hand awaits
  All matter asks a Spirit that creates!

  The calm correctness, where no fault we see,
  Attests Art's loftiest or its least degree;
  Alike the smoothness of the surface shows
  The Pool's dull stagnerthe great Sea's repose.

  The herd of scribes, by what they tell us,
  Show all in which their wits excel us;
  But the True Master we behold,
  In what his art leavesjust untold.

  O'er Ocean, with a thousand masts, sails forth the stripling bold
  One boat, hard rescued from the deep, draws into port the old!

  "A little earth from out the Earth-and I
  The Earth will move:" so spake the Sage divine.
  Out of myself one little momenttry
  Myself to take:succeed, and I am thine!

  What to cement the lofty and the mean
  Does Nature?What?Place vanity between?

  "How poor a thing is man!" Alas, 'tis true
  I'd half forgot itwhen I chanced on you!

  The herd of scribes, by what they tell us,
  Show all in which their wits excel us;
  But the True Master we behold,
  In what his art leavesjust untold.

  O'er Ocean, with a thousand masts, sails forth the stripling bold
  One boat, hard rescued from the deep, draws into port the old!

  "A little earth from out the Earth-and I
  The Earth will move:" so spake the Sage divine.
  Out of myself one little momenttry
  Myself to take:succeed, and I am thine!

  What to cement the lofty and the mean
  Does Nature?What?Place vanity between?

  "How poor a thing is man!" Alas, 'tis true
  I'd half forgot itwhen I chanced on you!

  How God compassionates Mankind, thy muse, my friend, rehearses
  Compassion for the sins of Man!What comfort for thy verses!

  To some she is the Goddess great, to some the milch-cow of the field;
  Their care is but to calculatewhat butter she will yield.

  How many starvelings one rich man can nourish!
  When monarchs build, the rubbish-carriers flourish.

  Within a vale, each infant year,
    When earliest larks first carol free,
  To humble shepherds doth appear
    A wondrous maiden, fair to see.
  Not born within that lowly place
    From whence she wander'd, none could tell;
  Her parting footsteps left no trace,
    When once the maiden bade farewell.
  And blessèd was her presence there
    Each heart, expanding, grew more gay;
  Yet something loftier still than fair
    Kept man's familiar looks away.
  From fairy gardens, known to none,
    She brought mysterious fruits and flowers
  The things of some serener sun
    Some Nature more benign than ours.
  With each, her gifts the maiden shared
    To some the fruits, the flowers to some;
  Alike the young, the aged fared;
    Each bore a blessing back to home.
  Though every guest was welcome there,
    Yet some the maiden held more dear,
  And cull'd her rarest sweets whene'er
    She saw two hearts that loved draw near.

  Before his lion-court,
  To see the gruesome sport,
    Sate the king;
  Beside him group'd his princely peers;
  And dames aloft, in circling tiers,
    Wreath'd round their blooming ring.
    King Francis, where he sate,
    Raised a fingeryawn'd the gate,
    And, slow from his repose,
    A LION goes!
    Dumbly he gazed around
    The foe-encircled ground;
    And, with a lazy gape,
    He stretch'd his lordly shape,
    And shook his careless mane,
    Andlaid him down again!
      A finger raised the king
    And nimbly have the guard
    A second gate unbarr'd;
      Forth, with a rushing spring,
          A TIGER sprung!
    Wildly the wild one yell'd
    When the lion he beheld;
    And, bristling at the look,
    With his tail his sides he strook,
          And roll'd his rabid tongue;
  In many a wary ring
  He swept round the forest king,
    With a fell and rattling sound;
    And laid him on the ground,
        Grommelling!
  The king raised his finger; then
  Leap'd two LEOPARDS from the den
    With a bound;
  And boldly bounded they
  Where the crouching tiger lay
    Terrible!
  And he gripped the beasts in his deadly hold;
  In the grim embrace they grappled and roll'd;
    Rose the lion with a roar!
    And stood the strife before;
    And the wild-cats on the spot,
    From the blood-thirst, wroth and hot,
      Halted still!
  Now from the balcony above,
  A snowy hand let fall a glove:
  Midway between the beasts of prey,
  Lion and tiger; there it lay,
    The winsome lady's glove!

   "Oh, where is the knight or the squire so bold,
    As to dive to the howling charybdis below?
  I cast in the whirlpool a goblet of gold,
    And o'er it already the dark waters flow;
  Whoever to me may the goblet bring,
  Shall have for his guerdon that gift of his king."
  He spoke, and the cup from the terrible steep,
    That, rugged and hoary, hung over the verge
  Of the endless and measureless world of the deep,
    Swirl'd into the maëlstrom that madden'd the surge.
   "And where is the diver so stout to go
  I ask ye againto the deep below?"
  And the knights and the squires that gather'd around,
    Stood silentand fix'd on the ocean their eyes;
  They look'd on the dismal and savage Profound,
    And the peril chill'd back every thought of the prize.
  And thrice spoke the monarch"The cup to win,
  Is there never a wight who will venture in?"
  And all as before heard in silence the king
    Till a youth with an aspect unfearing but gentle,
  'Mid the tremulous squiresstept out from the ring,
    Unbuckling his girdle, and doffing his mantle;
  And the murmuring crowd as they parted asunder,
  On the stately boy cast their looks of wonder.
  As he strode to the marge of the summit, and gave
    One glance on the gulf of that merciless main;
  Lo! the wave that forever devours the wave
    Casts roaringly up the charybdis again;
  And, as with the swell of the far thunder-boom,
  Rushes foamingly forth from the heart of the gloom.
  And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars,[6]
    As when fire is with water commix'd and contending,
  And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up-soars,
    And flood upon flood hurries on, never-ending.
  And it never will rest, nor from travail be free,
  Like a sea that is laboring the birth of a sea.
  Yet, at length, comes a lull O'er the mighty commotion,
  As the whirlpool sucks into black smoothness the swell
  Of the white-foaming breakersand cleaves thro' the ocean
  A path that seems winding in darkness to hell.
  Round and round whirl'd the waves-deeper and deeper
  still driven,
  Like a gorge thro' the mountainous main thunder-riven!
  The youth gave his trust to his Maker! Before
    That path through the riven abyss closed again
  Hark! a shriek from the crowd rang aloft from the shore,
    And, behold! he is whirl'd in the grasp of the main!
  And o'er him the breakers mysteriously roll'd,
  And the giant-mouth closed on the swimmer so bold.
  O'er the surface grim silence lay dark; but the crowd
    Heard the wail from the deep murmur hollow and fell;
  They hearken and shudder, lamenting aloud
    "Gallant youth-noble heart-fare-thee-well, fare-thee-well!"
  More hollow and more wails the deep on the ear
  More dread and more dread grows suspense in its fear.
  If thou should'st in those waters thy diadem fling,
    And cry, "Who may find it shall win it and wear;"
  God wot, though the prize were the crown of a king
    A crown at such hazard were valued too dear.
  For never shall lips of the living reveal
  What the deeps that howl yonder in terror conceal.
  Oh, many a bark, to that breast grappled fast,
    Has gone down to the fearful and fathomless grave;
  Again, crash'd together the keel and the mast,
    To be seen, toss'd aloft in the glee of the wave.
  Like the growth of a storm, ever louder and clearer,
  Grows the roar of the gulf rising nearer and nearer.
  And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars,
    As when fire is with water commix'd and contending;
  And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up-soars,
    And flood upon flood hurries on, never ending;
  And as with the swell of the far thunder-boom
  Rushes roaringly forth from the heart of the gloom.
  And, lo! from the heart of that far-floating gloom,[7]
    What gleams on the darkness so swanlike and white?
  Lo! an arm and a neck, glancing up from the tomb!
    They battlethe Man's with the Element's might.
  It is heit is he! In his left hand, behold!
  As a sign!as a joy!shines the goblet of gold!
  And he breathed deep, and he breathed long,
    And he greeted the heavenly delight of the day.
  They gaze on each otherthey shout, as they throng
    "He liveslo the ocean has render'd its prey!
  And safe from the whirlpool and free from the grave,
  Comes back to the daylight the soul of the brave!"
  And he comes, with the crowd in their clamor and glee,
    And the goblet his daring has won from the water,
  He lifts to the king as he sinks on his knee;
    And the king from her maidens has beckon'd his daughter
  She pours to the boy the bright wine which they bring,
  And thus spake the Diver"Long life to the king!
  "Happy they whom the rose-hues of daylight rejoice,
    The air and the sky that to mortals are given!
  May the horror below never more find a voice
    Nor Man stretch too far the wide mercy of Heaven!
  Never morenever more may he lift from the sight
  The veil which is woven with Terror and Night!
  "Quick-brightening like lightningit tore me along,
    Down, down, till the gush of a torrent, at play
  In the rocks of its wilderness, caught meand strong
    As the wings of an eagle, it whirl'd me away.
  Vain, vain was my strugglethe circle had won me,
  Round and round in its dance, the wild element spun me.
  "And I call'd on my God, and my God heard my prayer
    In the strength of my need, in the gasp of my breath
  And show'd me a crag that rose up from the lair,
    And I clung to it, nimblyand baffled the death!
  And, safe in the perils around me, behold
  On the spikes of the coral the goblet of gold!
  "Below, at the foot of the precipice drear,
    Spread the gloomy, and purple, and pathless Obscure!
  A silence of Horror that slept on the ear,
    That the eye more appall'd might the Horror endure!
  Salamandersnakedragonvast reptiles that dwell
  In the deep-coil'd about the grim jaws of their hell.
  "Dark-crawl'dglided dark the unspeakable swarms,
    Clump'd together in masses, misshapen and vast
  Here clung and here bristled the fashionless forms
    Here the dark-moving bulk of the Hammer-fish pass'd
  And with teeth grinning white, and a menacing motion,
  Went the terrible Sharkthe Hyena of Ocean.
  "There I hung, and the awe gather'd icily o'er me,
    So far from the earth, where man's help there was none!
  The One Human Thing, with the Goblins before me
    Alonein a loneness so ghastlyALONE!
  Fathom-deep from man's eye in the speechless profound,
  With the death of the Main and the Monsters around.
  "Methought, as I gazed through the darkness, that now
    IT[8] sawthe dread hundred-limbed creature-its prey!
  And dartedO God! from the far flaming-bough
    Of the coral, I swept on the horrible way;
  And it seized me, the wave with its wrath and its roar,
  It seized me to saveKing, the danger is o'er!"
  On the youth gazed the monarch, and marvel'd; quoth he,
    "Bold Diver, the goblet I promised is thine,
  And this ring will I give, a fresh guerdon to thee,
    Never jewels more precious shone up from the mine,
  If thou'lt bring me fresh tidings, and venture again
  To tell what lies hid in the innermost main?"
  Then outspake the daughter in tender emotion
    "Ah! father, my father, what more can there rest?
  Enough of this sport with the pitiless ocean
    He has served thee as none would, thyself has confest.
  If nothing can slake thy wild thirst of desire,
  Let thy knights put to shame the exploit of the squire!"
  The king seized the goblethe swung it on high,
    And whirling, it fell in the roar of the tide:
  "But bring back that goblet again to my eye,
    And I'll hold thee the dearest that rides by my side;
  And thine arms shall embrace, as thy bride, I decree,
  The maiden whose pity now pleadeth for thee."
  In his heart, as he listen'd, there leapt the wild joy
    And the hope and the love through his eyes spoke in fire,
  On that bloom, on that blush, gazed delighted the boy;
    The maiden-she faints at the feet of her sire!
  Here the guerdon divine, there the danger beneath;
  He resolves! To the strife with the life and the death!
  They hear the loud surges sweep back in their swell,
    Their coming the thunder-sound heralds along!
  Fond eyes yet are tracking the spot where he fell:
    They come, the wild waters, in tumult and throng,
  Roaring up to the cliffroaring back, as before,
  But no wave ever brings the lost youth to the shore.