The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 01. Коллектив авторов

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        Hush'd on the hill

        Is the breeze;

        Scarce by the zephyr

        The trees

        Softly are press'd;

        The woodbird's asleep on the bough.

        Wait, then, and thou

        Soon wilt find rest.

        Who rides there so late through the night dark and drear?

        The father it is, with his infant so dear;

        He holdeth the boy tightly clasp'd in his arm,

        He holdeth him safely, he keepeth him warm.

        "My son, wherefore seek's thou thy face thus to hide?"

        "Look, father, the Erl-King is close by our side!

        Dost see not the Erl-King, with crown and with train?"

        "My son, 'tis the mist rising over the plain."

        "Oh come, thou dear infant! oh come thou with me!

        Full many a game I will play there with thee;

        On my strand, lovely flowers their blossoms unfold,

        My mother shall grace thee with garments of gold."

        "My father, my father, and dost thou not hear

        The words that the Erl-King now breathes in mine ear?"

        "Be calm, dearest child, 'tis thy fancy deceives;

        'Tis the sad wind that sighs through the withering leaves."

        "Wilt go, then, dear infant, wilt go with me there?

        My daughters shall tend thee with sisterly care;

        My daughters by night their glad festival keep,

        They'll dance thee, and rock thee, and sing thee to sleep."

        "My father, my father, and dost thou not see,

        How the Erl-King his daughters has brought here for me?"

        "My darling, my darling, I see it aright,

        'Tis the agèd gray willows deceiving thy sight."

        "I love thee, I'm charm'd by thy beauty, dear boy!

        And if thou'rt unwilling, then force I'll employ."

        "My father, my father, he seizes me fast,

        Full sorely the Erl-King has hurt me at last."

        The father now gallops, with terror half wild,

        He grasps in his arms the poor shuddering child;

        He reaches his court-yard with toil and with dread,—

        The child in his arms finds he motionless, dead.

        Noble be man,

        Helpful and good!

        For that alone

        Distinguisheth him

        From all the beings

        Unto us known.

        Hail to the beings,

        Unknown and glorious,

        Whom we forebode!

      From his example

        Learn we to know them!

        For unfeeling

        Nature is ever

        On bad and on good

        The sun alike shineth;

        And on the wicked,

        As on the best,

        The moon and stars gleam.

        Tempest and torrent,

        Thunder and hail,

        Roar on their path,

        Seizing the while,

        As they haste onward,

        One after another.

        Even so, fortune

        Gropes 'mid the throng—

        Innocent boyhood's

        Curly head seizing,—

        Seizing the hoary

        Head of the sinner.

        After laws mighty,

        Brazen, eternal,

        Must all we mortals

        Finish the circuit

        Of our existence.

        Man, and man only

        Can do the impossible

        He 'tis distinguisheth,

        Chooseth and judgeth;

        He to the moment

        Endurance can lend.

        He and he only

        The good can reward,

        The bad can he punish,

        Can heal and can save;

        All that wanders and strays

        Can usefully blend.

        And we pay homage

        To the immortals

        As though they were men,

        And did in the great,

        What the best, in the small,

        Does or might do.

        Be the man that is noble,

        Both helpful and good,

        Unweariedly forming

        The right and the useful,

        A type of those beings

        Our mind hath foreshadow'd!