Читать книгу The Greatest German Classics (Vol. 1-14) - Various - Страница 1367

Icarus! Icarus!

Oh woeful sight!

(A beautiful youth falls at the parents' feet; we imagine that in the dead we recognize a well-known form; yet suddenly the corporeal part vanishes; the aureole rises like a comet to heaven; dress, mantle, and lyre remain lying on the ground.)

HELENA and FAUST

Follows on joy new-born

Anguishful moan!

EUPHORION'S VOICE, (from the depths)

Leave me in realms forlorn,

Mother, not all alone! [Pause.]

CHORUS (dirge)

Not alone—for hope we cherish,

Where thou bidest thee to know!

Ah, from daylight though thou perish,

Ne'er a heart will let thee go!

Scarce we venture to bewail thee,

Envying we sing thy fate:

Did sunshine cheer, or storm assail thee,

Song and heart were fair and great.

Earthly fortune was thy dower,

Lofty lineage, ample might,

Ah, too early lost, thy flower

Withered by untimely blight!

Glance was thine the world discerning,

Sympathy with every wrong,

Woman's love for thee still yearning,

And thine own enchanting song.

Yet the beaten path forsaking,

Thou didst run into the snare;

So with law and usage breaking,

On thy wilful course didst fare;

Yet at last high thought has given

To thy noble courage weight,

For the loftiest thou has striven—

It to win was not thy fate.

Who does win it? Unreplying,

Destiny the question hears,

When the bleeding people lying,

Dumb with grief, no cry uprears!—

Now new songs chant forth, in sorrow

Deeply bowed lament no more;

Them the earth brings forth tomorrow,

As she brought them forth of yore!

[Full pause. The music ceases.]

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