The Works of Frederick Schiller Part 497

We ever shun the caverns black, And revel in the glowing day; 'Tis we who light the world's dark track, With our life's clear and magic ray.

Spring's joyful harbingers are we, And her inspiring streams we swell; And so the house of death we flee, For life alone must round us dwell.

Without us is no perfect bliss, When man is glad, we, too, attend, And when a monarch wors.h.i.+pped is, To him our majesty attend.

X.

What is the thing esteemed by few?

The monarch's hand it decks with pride, Yet it is made to injure too, And to the sword is most allied.

No blood it sheds, yet many a wound Inflicts,--gives wealth, yet takes from none; Has vanquished e'en the earth's wide round, And makes life's current smoothly run.

The greatest kingdoms it has framed, The oldest cities reared from dust, Yet war's fierce torch has ne'er inflamed; Happy are they who in it trust!

XI.

I live within a dwelling of stone, There buried in slumber I dally; Yet, armed with a weapon of iron alone, The foe to encounter I sally.

At first I'm invisible, feeble, and mean, And o'er me thy breath has dominion; I'm easily drowned in a raindrop e'en, Yet in victory waxes my pinion.

When my sister, all-powerful, gives me her hand, To the terrible lord of the world I expand.

XII.

Upon a disk my course I trace, There restlessly forever flit; Small is the circuit I embrace, Two hands suffice to cover it.

Yet ere that field I traverse, I Full many a thousand mile must go, E'en though with tempest-speed I fly, Swifter than arrow from a bow.

XIII.

A bird it is, whose rapid motion With eagle's flight divides the air; A fish it is, and parts the ocean, That bore a greater monster ne'er; An elephant it is, whose rider On his broad back a tower has put: 'Tis like the reptile base, the spider, Whenever it extends its foot; And when, with iron tooth projecting, It seeks its own life-blood to drain, On footing firm, itself erecting, It braves the raging hurricane.

THE VIRTUE OF WOMAN.

Man of virtue has need;-into life with boldness he plunges, Entering with fortune more sure into the hazardous strife; But to woman one virtue suffices; it is ever s.h.i.+ning Lovingly forth to the heart; so let it s.h.i.+ne to the eye!

THE WALK.

Hail to thee, mountain beloved, with thy glittering purple-dyed summit!

Hail to thee also, fair sun, looking so lovingly on!

Thee, too, I hail, thou smiling plain, and ye murmuring lindens, Ay, and the chorus so glad, cradled on yonder high boughs; Thee, too, peaceably azure, in infinite measure extending Round the dusky-hued mount, over the forest so green,-- Round about me, who now from my chamber's confinement escaping, And from vain frivolous talk, gladly seek refuge with thee.

Through me to quicken me runs the balsamic stream of thy breezes, While the energetical light freshens the gaze as it thirsts.

Bright o'er the blooming meadow the changeable colors are gleaming, But the strife, full of charms, in its own grace melts away Freely the plain receives me,--with carpet far away reaching, Over its friendly green wanders the pathway along.

Round me is humming the busy bee, and with pinion uncertain Hovers the b.u.t.terfly gay over the trefoil's red flower.

Fiercely the darts of the sun fall on me,--the zephyr is silent, Only the song of the lark echoes athwart the clear air.

Now from the neighboring copse comes a roar, and the tops of the alders Bend low down,--in the wind dances the silvery gra.s.s; Night ambrosial circles me round; in the coolness so fragrant Greets me a beauteous roof, formed by the beeches' sweet shade.

In the depths of the wood the landscape suddenly leaves me And a serpentine path guides up my footsteps on high.

Only by stealth can the light through the leafy trellis of branches Sparingly pierce, and the blue smilingly peeps through the boughs, But in a moment the veil is rent, and the opening forest Suddenly gives back the day's glittering brightness to me!

Boundlessly seems the distance before my gaze to be stretching, And in a purple-tinged hill terminates sweetly the world.

Deep at the foot of the mountain, that under me falls away steeply, Wanders the greenish-hued stream, looking like gla.s.s as it flows.

Endlessly under me see I the ether, and endlessly o'er Giddily look I above, shudderingly look I below, But between the infinite height and the infinite hollow Safely the wanderer moves over a well-guarded path.

Smilingly past me are flying the banks all teeming with riches, And the valley so bright boasts of its industry glad.

See how yonder hedgerows that sever the farmer's possessions Have by Demeter been worked into the tapestried plain!

Kindly decree of the law, of the Deity mortal-sustaining, Since from the brazen world love vanished forever away.

But in freer windings the measured pastures are traversed (Now swallowed up in the wood, now climbing up to the hills) By a glimmering streak, the highway that knits lands together; Over the smooth-flowing stream, quietly glide on the rafts.

Ofttimes resound the bells of the flocks in the fields that seem living, And the shepherd's lone song wakens the echo again.

Joyous villages crown the stream, in the copse others vanish, While from the back of the mount, others plunge wildly below.

Man still lives with the land in neighborly friends.h.i.+p united, And round his sheltering roof calmly repose still his fields; Trustingly climbs the vine high over the low-reaching window, While round the cottage the tree circles its far-stretching boughs.

Happy race of the plain! Not yet awakened to freedom, Thou and thy pastures with joy share in the limited law; Bounded thy wishes all are by the harvest's peaceable circuit, And thy lifetime is spent e'en as the task of the day!

But what suddenly hides the beauteous view? A strange spirit Over the still-stranger plain spreads itself quickly afar-- Coyly separates now, what scarce had lovingly mingled, And 'tis the like that alone joins itself on to the like.

Orders I see depicted; the haughty tribes of the poplars Marshalled in regular pomp, stately and beauteous appear.

All gives token of rule and choice, and all has its meaning,-- 'Tis this uniform plan points out the Ruler to me.

Brightly the glittering domes in far-away distance proclaim him.

Out of the kernel of rocks rises the city's high wall.

Into the desert without, the fauns of the forest are driven, But by devotion is lent life more sublime to the stone.

Man is brought into nearer union with man, and around him Closer, more actively wakes, swifter moves in him the world.

See! the emulous forces in fiery conflict are kindled, Much, they effect when they strive, more they effect when they join.

Thousands of hands by one spirit are moved, yet in thousands of bosoms Beats one heart all alone, by but one feeling inspired-- Beats for their native land, and glows for their ancestors' precepts; Here on the well-beloved spot, rest now time-honored bones.

Down from the heavens descends the blessed troop of immortals, In the bright circle divine making their festal abode; Granting glorious gifts, they appear: and first of all, Ceres Offers the gift of the plough, Hermes the anchor brings next, Bacchus the grape, and Minerva the verdant olive-tree's branches, Even his charger of war brings there Poseidon as well.

Mother Cybele yokes to the pole of her chariot the lions, And through the wide-open door comes as a citizen in.

Sacred stones! 'Tis from ye that proceed humanity's founders, Morals and arts ye sent forth, e'en to the ocean's far isles.

'Twas at these friendly gates that the law was spoken by sages; In their Penates' defence, heroes rushed out to the fray.

On the high walls appeared the mothers, embracing their infants, Looking after the march, till the distance 'twas lost.

Then in prayer they threw themselves down at the deities' altars, Praying for triumph and fame, praying for your safe return.

Honor and triumph were yours, but naught returned save your glory, And by a heart-touching stone, told are your valorous deeds.

"Traveller! when thou com'st to Sparta, proclaim to the people That thou hast seen us lie here, as by the law we were bid."

Slumber calmly, ye loved ones! for sprinkled o'er by your life-blood, Flourish the olive-trees there, joyously sprouts the good seed.

In its possessions exulting, industry gladly is kindled.

And from the sedge of the stream smilingly signs the blue G.o.d.

Crus.h.i.+ngly falls the axe on the tree, the Dryad sighs sadly; Down from the crest of the mount plunges the thundering load.

Winged by the lever, the stone from the rocky crevice is loosened; Into the mountain's abyss boldly the miner descends.

Mulciber's anvil resounds with the measured stroke of the hammer; Under the fist's nervous blow, spurt out the sparks of the steel.

Brilliantly twines the golden flax round the swift-whirling spindles, Through the strings of the yarn whizzes the shuttle away.

Far in the roads the pilot calls, and the vessels are waiting, That to the foreigner's land carry the produce of home; Others gladly approach with the treasures of far-distant regions, High on the mast's lofty head flutters the garland of mirth.

See how yon markets, those centres of life and of gladness, are swarming!

Strange confusion of tongues sounds in the wondering ear.

On to the pile the wealth of the earth is heaped by the merchant, All that the sun's scorching rays bring forth on Africa's soil, All that Arabia prepares, that the uttermost Thule produces, High with heart-gladdening stores fills Amalthea her horn.

Fortune wedded to talent gives birth there to children immortal, Suckled in liberty's arms, flourish the arts there of joy.

With the image of life the eyes by the sculptor are ravished, And by the chisel inspired, speaks e'en the sensitive stone.

Skies artificial repose on slender Ionian columns, And a Pantheon includes all that Olympus contains.