The Works of Frederick Schiller Part 485

PUNCH SONG.

(TO BE SUNG IN NORTHERN COUNTRIES.)

On the mountain's breezy summit, Where the southern sunbeams s.h.i.+ne, Aided by their warming vigor, Nature yields the golden wine.

How the wondrous mother formeth, None have ever read aright; Hid forever is her working, And inscrutable her might.

Sparkling as a son of Phoebus, As the fiery source of light, From the vat it bubbling springeth, Purple, and as crystal bright;

And rejoiceth all the senses, And in every sorrowing breast Poureth hope's refres.h.i.+ng balsam, And on life bestows new zest.

But their slanting rays all feebly On our zone the sunbeams shoot; They can only tinge the foliage, But they ripen ne'er the fruit.

Yet the north insists on living, And what lives will merry be; So, although the grape is wanting, We invent wine cleverly.

Pale the drink we now are offering On the household altar here; But what living Nature maketh, Sparkling is and ever clear.

Let us from the br.i.m.m.i.n.g goblet, Drain the troubled flood with mirth; Art is but a gift of heaven, Borrowed from the glow of earth.

Even strength's dominions boundless 'Neath her rule obedient lie; From the old the new she fas.h.i.+ons With creative energy.

She the elements' close union Severs with her sovereign nod; With the flame upon the altar, Emulates the great sun-G.o.d.

For the distant, happy islands Now the vessel sallies forth, And the southern fruits, all-golden, Pours upon the eager north.

As a type, then,--as an image, Be to us this fiery juice, Of the wonders that frail mortals Can with steadfast will produce!

THE COMPLAINT OF CERES. [29]

Does pleasant spring return once more?

Does earth her happy youth regain?

Sweet suns green hills are s.h.i.+ning o'er; Soft brooklets burst their icy chain: Upon the blue translucent river Laughs down an all-unclouded day, The winged west winds gently quiver, The buds are bursting from the spray; While birds are blithe on every tree; The Oread from the mountain-sh.o.r.e Sighs, "Lo! thy flowers come back to thee-- Thy child, sad mother, comes no more!"

Alas! how long an age it seems Since all the earth I wandered over, And vainly, t.i.tan, tasked thy beams The loved--the lost one--to discover!

Though all may seek--yet none can call Her tender presence back to me The sun, with eyes detecting all, Is blind one vanished form to see.

Hast thou, O Zeus! hast thou away From these sad arms my daughter torn?

Has Pluto, from the realms of day, Enamored--to dark rivers borne?

Who to the dismal phantom-strand The herald of my grief will venture?

The boat forever leaves the land, But only shadows there may enter.-- Veiled from each holier eye repose The realms where midnight wraps the dead, And, while the Stygian river flows, No living footstep there may tread!

A thousand pathways wind the drear Descent;--none upward lead to-day;-- No witness to the mother's ear The daughter's sorrows can betray.

Mothers of happy human clay Can share at least their children's doom; And when the loved ones pa.s.s away, Can track--can join them--in the tomb!

The race alone of heavenly birth Are banished from the darksome portals; The Fates have mercy on the earth, And death is only kind to mortals! [30]

Oh, plunge me in the night of nights, From heaven's ambrosial halls exiled!

Oh, let the G.o.ddess lose the rights That shut the mother from the child!

Where sits the dark king's joyless bride, Where midst the dead her home is made; Oh that my noiseless steps might glide, Amidst the shades, myself a shade!

I see her eyes, that search through tears, In vain the golden light to greet; That yearn for yonder distant spheres, That pine the mother's face to meet!

Till some bright moment shall renew The severed hearts' familiar ties; And softened pity steal in dew, From Pluto's slow-relenting eyes!

Ah, vain the wish, the sorrows are!

Calm in the changeless paths above Rolls on the day-G.o.d's golden car-- Fast are the fixed decrees of Jove!

Far from the ever-gloomy plain, He turns his blissful looks away.

Alas! night never gives again What once it seizes as its prey!

Till over Lethe's sullen swell, Aurora's rosy hues shall glow; And arching through the midmost h.e.l.l s.h.i.+ne forth the lovely Iris-bow!

And is there naught of her; no token-- No pledge from that beloved hand?

To tell how love remains unbroken, How far soever be the land?

Has love no link, no lightest thread, The mother to the child to bind?

Between the living and the dead, Can hope no holy compact find?

No! every bond is not yet riven; We are not yet divided wholly; To us the eternal powers have given A symbol language, sweet and holy.

When Spring's fair children pa.s.s away, When, in the north wind's icy air, The leaf and flower alike decay, And leave the rivelled branches bare, Then from Vertumnus' lavish horn I take life's seeds to strew below-- And bid the gold that germs the corn An offering to the Styx to go!

Sad in the earth the seeds I lay-- Laid at thy heart, my child--to be The mournful tokens which convey My sorrow and my love to thee!

But, when the hours, in measured dance, The happy smile of spring restore, Rife in the sun-G.o.d's golden glance The buried dead revive once more!

The germs that perished to thine eyes, Within the cold breast of the earth, Spring up to bloom in gentler skies, The brighter for the second birth!

The stem its blossom rears above-- Its roots in night's dark womb repose-- The plant but by the equal love Of light and darkness fostered--grows!

If half with death the germs may sleep, Yet half with life they share the beams; My heralds from the dreary deep, Soft voices from the solemn streams,-- Like her, so them, awhile entombs, Stern Orcus, in his dismal reign, Yet spring sends forth their tender blooms With such sweet messages again, To tell,--how far from light above, Where only mournful shadows meet, Memory is still alive to love, And still the faithful heart can beat!

Joy to ye children of the field!

Whose life each coming year renews, To your sweet cups the heaven shall yield The purest of its nectar-dews!

Steeped in the light's resplendent streams, The hues that streak the Iris-bow Shall trim your blooms as with the beams The looks of young Aurora know.

The budding life of happy spring, The yellow autumn's faded leaf, Alike to gentle hearts shall bring The symbols of my joy and grief.

THE ELEUSINIAN FESTIVAL.

Wreathe in a garland the corn's golden ear!

With it, the Cyane [31] blue intertwine Rapture must render each glance bright and clear, For the great queen is approaching her shrine,-- She who compels lawless pa.s.sions to cease, Who to link man with his fellow has come, And into firm habitations of peace Changed the rude tents' ever-wandering home.

Shyly in the mountain-cleft Was the Troglodyte concealed; And the roving Nomad left, Desert lying, each broad field.

With the javelin, with the bow, Strode the hunter through the land; To the hapless stranger woe, Billow-cast on that wild strand!

When, in her sad wanderings lost, Seeking traces of her child, Ceres hailed the dreary coast, Ah, no verdant plain then smiled!

That she here with trust may stay, None vouchsafes a sheltering roof; Not a temple's columns gay Give of G.o.dlike wors.h.i.+p proof.

Fruit of no propitious ear Bids her to the pure feast fly; On the ghastly altars here Human bones alone e'er dry.

Far as she might onward rove, Misery found she still in all, And within her soul of love, Sorrowed she o'er man's deep fall.

"Is it thus I find the man To whom we our image lend, Whose fair limbs of n.o.ble span Upward towards the heavens ascend?