The Poems of Schiller - Third period Part 5

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?

Laid we not before his feet Earth's unbounded G.o.dlike womb?

Yet upon his kingly seat Wanders he without a home?"

"Does no G.o.d compa.s.sion feel?

Will none of the blissful race, With an arm of miracle, Raise him from his deep disgrace?

In the heights where rapture reigns Pangs of others ne'er can move; Yet man's anguish and man's pains My tormented heart must prove."

"So that a man a man may be, Let him make an endless bond With the kind earth trustingly, Who is ever good and fond To revere the law of time, And the moon's melodious song Who, with silent step sublime, Move their sacred course along."

And she softly parts the cloud That conceals her from the sight; Sudden, in the savage crowd, Stands she, as a G.o.ddess bright.

There she finds the concourse rude In their glad feast revelling, And the chalice filled with blood As a sacrifice they bring.

But she turns her face away, Horror-struck, and speaks the while "b.l.o.o.d.y tiger-feasts ne'er may Of a G.o.d the lips defile, He needs victims free from stain, Fruits matured by autumn's sun; With the pure gifts of the plain Honored is the Holy One!"

And she takes the heavy shaft From the hunter's cruel hand; With the murderous weapon's haft Furrowing the light-strown sand,-- Takes from out her garland's crown, Filled with life, one single grain, Sinks it in the furrow down, And the germ soon swells amain.

And the green stalks gracefully Shoot, ere long, the ground above, And, as far as eye can see, Waves it like a golden grove.

With her smile the earth she cheers, Binds the earliest sheaves so fair, As her hearth the landmark rears,-- And the G.o.ddess breathes this prayer:

"Father Zeus, who reign'st o'er all That in ether's mansions dwell, Let a sign from thee now fall That thou lov'st this offering well!

And from the unhappy crowd That, as yet, has ne'er known thee, Take away the eye's dark cloud, Showing them their deity!"

Zeus, upon his lofty throne, Harkens to his sister's prayer; From the blue heights thundering down, Hurls his forked lightning there, Crackling, it begins to blaze, From the altar whirling bounds,-- And his swift-winged eagle plays High above in circling rounds.

Soon at the feet of their mistress are kneeling, Filled with emotion, the rapturous throng; Into humanity's earliest feeling Melt their rude spirits, untutored and strong.

Each b.l.o.o.d.y weapon behind them they leave, Rays on their senses beclouded soon s.h.i.+ne, And from the mouth of the queen they receive, Gladly and meekly, instruction divine.

All the deities advance Downward from their heavenly seats; Themis' self 'tis leads the dance, And, with staff of justice, metes Unto every one his rights,-- Landmarks, too, 'tis hers to fix; And in witness she invites All the hidden powers of Styx.

And the forge-G.o.d, too, is there, The inventive son of Zeus; Fas.h.i.+oner of vessels fair Skilled in clay and bra.s.s's use.