Читать книгу The Greatest German Classics (Vol. 1-14) - Various - Страница 1205

The highest virtue circles halo-wise

Our Cæsar's brow; virtue, which from the throne,

He validly can exercise alone:

Justice!—What all men love and prize,

What all demand, desire, and sorely want,

It lies with him, this to the folk to grant.

But ah! what help can intellect command,

Goodness of heart, or willingness of hand,

When fever saps the state with deadly power,

And mischief breedeth mischief, hour by hour?

To him who downward from this height supreme

Views the wide realm, 'tis like a troubled dream,

Where the deformed deformity o'ersways,

Where lawlessness, through law, the tyrant plays,

And error's ample world itself displays.

One steals a woman, one a steer,

Lights from the altar, chalice, cross,

Boasts of his deed full many a year,

Unscathed in body, without harm or loss.

Now to the hall accusers throng;

On cushioned throne the judge presides;

Surging meanwhile in eddying tides,

Confusion waxes fierce and strong.

He may exalt in crime and shame,

Who on accomplices depends;

Guilty! the verdict they proclaim,

When Innocence her cause defends.

So will the world succumb to ill,

And what is worthy perish quite;

How then may grow the sense which still

Instructs us to discern the right?

E'en the right-minded man, in time,

To briber and to flatterer yields;

The judge, who cannot punish crime,

Joins with the culprit whom he shields.—

I've painted black, yet fain had been

A veil to draw before the scene.

Pause

Measures must needs be taken; when

All injure or are injured, then

E'en Majesty becomes a prey.