Читать книгу Legends of the Saxon Saints - Aubrey De Vere - Страница 6

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Odin, a Prince who reigned near the Caspian Sea, after a vain resistance to the Roman arms, leads forth his people to the forests north of the Danube, that, serving God in freedom on the limits of the Roman Empire, and being strengthened by an adverse climate, they may one day descend upon that empire in just revenge; which destiny was fulfilled by the sack of Rome, under Alaric, Christian King of the Goths, a race derived, like the Saxon, from that Eastern people.

Forth with those missives, Chiron, to the Invader!

Hence, and make speed: they scathe mine eyes like fire:

Pompeius, thou hast conquered! What remains?

Vengeance! Man's race has never dreamed of such;

So slow, so sure. Pompeius, I depart:

I might have held these mountains yet four days:

The fifth had seen them thine—

I look beyond the limit of this night:

Four centuries I need; then comes mine hour.

What saith the Accursed One of the Western World?

I hear even now her trumpet! Thus she saith:

'I have enlarged my borders: iron reaped

Earth's field all golden. Strenuous fight we fought:

I left some sweat-drops on that Carthage shore,

Some blood on Gallic javelins. That is past!

My pleasant days are come: my couch is spread

Beside all waters of the Midland Sea;

By whispers lulled of nations kneeling round;

Illumed by light of balmiest climes; refreshed

By winds from Atlas and the Olympian snows:

Henceforth my foot is in delicious ways;

Bathe it, ye Persian fountains! Syrian vales,

All roses, make me sleepy with perfumes!

Caucasian cliffs, with martial echoes faint

Flatter light slumbers; charm a Roman dream!

I send you my Pompeius; let him lead

Odin in chains to Rome!' Odin in chains!

Were Odin chained, or dead, that God he serves

Could raise a thousand Odins—

Rome's Founder-King beside his Augur standing

Noted twelve ravens borne in sequent flight

O'er Alba's crags. They emblem'd centuries twelve,

The term to Rome conceded. Eight are flown;

Remain but four. Hail, sacred brood of night!

Hencefore my standards bear the Raven Sign,

The bird that hoarsely haunts the ruined tower;

The bird sagacious of the field of blood

Albeit far off. Four centuries I need:

Then comes my day. My race and I are one.

O Race beloved and holy! From my youth

Where'er a hungry heart impelled my feet,

Whate'er I found of glorious, have I not

Claimed it for thee, deep-musing? Ignorant, first,

For thee I wished the golden ingots piled

In Susa and Ecbatana:—ah fool!

At Athens next, treading where Plato trod,

For thee all triumphs of the mind of man,

And Phidian hand inspired! Ah fool, that hour

Athens lay bound, a slave! Later to Rome

In secrecy by Mithridates sent

To search the inmost of his hated foe,

For thee I claimed that discipline of Law

Which made her State one camp. Fool, fool once more!

Soon learned I what a heart-pollution lurked

Beneath that mask of Law. As Persia fell,

By softness sapped, so Rome. Behold, this day,

Following the Pole Star of my just revenge,

I lead my people forth to clearer fates

Through cloudier fortunes. They are brave and strong:

'Tis but the rose-breath of their vale that rots

Their destiny's bud unblown. I lead them forth,

A race war-vanquished, not a race of slaves;

Lead them, not southward to Euphrates' bank,

Not Eastward to the realms of rising suns,

Not West to Rome and bondage. Hail, thou North!

Hail, boundless woods, by nameless oceans girt,

And snow-robed mountain islets, founts of fire!

Four hundred years! I know that awful North:

I sought it when the one flower of my life

Fell to my foot. That anguish set me free:

It dashed me on the iron side of life:

I woke, a man. My people too shall wake:

They shall have icy crags for myrtle banks,

Sharp rocks for couches. Strength! I must have strength;

Not splenetic sallies of a woman's courage,

But hearts to which self-pity is unknown:

Hard life to them must be as mighty wine

Gladdening the strong: the death on battle fields

Must seem the natural, honest close of life;

Their fear must be to die without a wound

And miss Life's after-banquet. Wooden shield

Whole winter nights shall lie their covering sole:

Thereon the boy shall stem the ocean wave;

Thereon the youth shall slide with speed of winds

Loud-laughing down the snowy mountain-slope:

To him the Sire shall whisper as he bleeds,

'Remember the revenge? Thy son must prove

More strong, more hard than thou!'

Four hundred years!

Increase is tardy in that icy clime,

For Death is there the awful nurse of Life:

Death rocks the cot. Why meet we there no wolf

Save those huge-limbed? Because weak wolf-cubs die.

'Tis thus with man; 'tis thus with all things strong:—

Rise higher on thy northern hills, my Pine!

That Southern Palm shall dwindle.

House stone-walled—

Ye shall not have it! Temples cedar-roofed—

Ye shall not build them! Where the Temple stands

The City gathers. Cities ye shall spurn:

Live in the woods; live singly, winning each,

Hunter or fisher by blue lakes, his prey:

Abhor the gilded shrine: the God Unknown

In such abides not. On the mountain's top

Great Persia sought Him in her day of strength:

With her ye share the kingly breed of Truths,

The noblest inspirations man hath known,

Or can know—ay, unless the Lord of all

Should come, Man's Teacher. Pray as Persia prayed;

And see ye pray for Vengeance! Leave till then

To Rome her Idol fanes and pilfered Gods.

I see you, O my People, year by year

Strengthened by sufferings; pains that crush the weak,

Your helpers. Men have been that, poison-fed,

Grew poison-proof: on pain and wrong feed ye!

The wild-beast rage against you! frost and fire

Rack you in turn! I'll have no gold among you;

With gold come wants; and wants mean servitude.

Edge, each, his spear with fish-bone or with flint,

Leaning for prop on none. I want no Nations!

A Race I fashion, playing not at States:

I take the race of Man, the breed that lifts

Alone its brow to heaven: I change that race

From clay to stone, from stone to adamant

Through slow abrasion, such as leaves sea-shelves

Lustrous at last and smooth. To be, not have, A man to be; no heritage to clasp Save that which simple manhood, at its will, Or conquers or re-conquers, held meanwhile In trust for Virtue; this alone is greatness. Remain ye Tribes, not Nations; led by Kings, Great onward-striding Kings, above the rest High towering, like the keel-compelling sail That takes the topmost tempest. Let them die, Each for his people! I will die for mine Then when my work is finished; not before. That Bandit King who founded Rome, the Accursed, Vanished in storm. My sons shall see me die, Die, strong to lead them till my latest breath, Which shall not be a sigh; shall see and say, 'This Man far-marching through the mountainous world, No God, but yet God's Prophet of the North, Gave many crowns to others: for himself His people were his crown.' Four hundred years— Ye shall find savage races in your path: Be ye barbaric, ay, but savage not: Hew down the baser lest they drag you down; Ye cannot raise them: they fulfil their fates: Be terrible to foes, be kind to friend: Be just; be true. Revere the Household Hearth; This knowing, that beside it dwells a God: Revere the Priest, the King, the Bard, the Maid, The Mother of the heroic race—five strings Sounding God's Lyre. Drive out with lance for goad That idiot God by Rome called Terminus, Who standing sleeps, and holds his reign o'er fools. The earth is God's, not Man's: that Man from Him Holds it whose valour earns it. Time shall come, It may be, when the warfare shall be past, The reign triumphant of the brave and just In peace consolidated. Time may come When that long winter of the Northern Land Shall find its spring. Where spreads the black morass Harvest all gold may glitter; cities rise Where roamed the elk; and nations set their thrones; Nations not like those empires known till now, But wise and pure. Let such their temples build And worship Truth, if Truth should e'er to Man Show her full face. Let such ordain them laws If Justice e'er should mate with laws of men. Above the mountain summits of Man's hope There spreads, I know, a land illimitable, The table land of Virtue trial-proved, Whereon one day the nations of the world Shall race like emulous Gods. A greater God Served by our sires, a God unknown to Rome, Above that shining level sits, high-towered: Millions of Spirits wing His flaming light, And fiery winds among His tresses play: When comes that hour which judges Gods and men, That God shall plague the Gods that filched His name, And cleanse the Peoples. When ye hear, my sons, That God uprising in His judgment robes And see their dreadful crimson in the West, Then know ye that the knell of Rome is nigh; Then stand, and listen! When His Trumpet sounds Forth from your forests and your snows, my sons, Forth over Ister, Rhenus, Rhodonus, To Mœsia forth, to Thrace, Illyricum, Iberia, Gaul; but, most of all, to Rome! Who leads you thither leads you not for spoil: A mission hath he, fair though terrible;— He makes a pure hand purer, washed in blood: On, Scourge of God! the Vengeance Hour is come. I know that hour, and wait it. Odin's work Stands then consummate. Odin's name thenceforth Goes down to darkness. Farewell, Ararat! How many an evening, still and bright as this, In childhood, youth, or manhood's sorrowing years, Have I not watched the sunset hanging red Upon thy hoary brow! Farewell for ever! A legend haunts thee that the race of man In earliest days, a sad and storm-tossed few, From thy wan heights descended, making way Into a ruined world. A storm-tossed race, But not self-pitying, once again thou seest Into a world all ruin making way Whither they know not, yet without a fear. This hour—lo, there, they pass yon valley's verge!— In sable weeds that pilgrimage moves on, Moves slowly like thy shadow, Ararat, That eastward creeps. Phantom of glory dead! Image of greatness that disdains to die! Move Northward thou! Whate'er thy fates decreed, At least that shadow shall be shadow of man, And not of beast gold-weighted! On, thou Night Cast by my heart! Thou too shalt meet thy morn!