Читать книгу The Greatest German Classics (Vol. 1-14) - Various - Страница 1605

Now, its destined task fulfilled,

Asunder break the prison-mold;

Let the goodly Bell we build,

Eye and heart alike behold.

The hammer down heave,

Till the cover it cleave:—

For not till we shatter the wall of its cell

Can we lift from its darkness and bondage the Bell.

To break the mold the master may,

If skilled the hand and ripe the hour;

But woe, when on its fiery way

The metal seeks itself to pour,

Frantic and blind, with thunder-knell,

Exploding from its shattered home,

And glaring forth, as from a hell,

Behold the red Destruction come!

When rages strength that has no reason,

There breaks the mold before the season;

When numbers burst what bound before,

Woe to the State that thrives no more!

Yea, woe, when in the City's heart,

The latent spark to flame is blown,

"Freedom! Equality!"—to blood

And Millions from their silence start,

To claim, without a guide, their own!

Discordant howls the warning Bell,

Proclaiming discord wide and far,

And, born but things of peace to tell,

Becomes the ghastliest voice of war:

"Freedom! Equality!"—to blood

Rush the roused people at the sound!

Through street, hall, palace, roars the flood,

And banded murder closes round!

The hyena-shapes (that women were!)

Jest with the horrors they survey;

They hound—they rend—they mangle there,

As panthers with their prey!

Naught rests to hallow—burst the ties

Of life's sublime and reverent awe;

Before the Vice the Virtue flies,

And Universal Crime is Law!

Man fears the lion's kingly tread;

Man fears the tiger's fangs of terror;

And still, the dreadliest of the dread,

Is Man himself in error!

No torch, though lit from Heaven, illumes

The Blind!—Why place it in his hands?

It lights not him—it but consumes

The City and the Land!