The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 03 - Коллектив авторов

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still!

        Now from the balcony above,

        A snowy hand let fall a glove:—

        Midway between the beasts of prey,

        Lion and tiger; there it lay,

          The winsome lady's glove!

      Fair Cunigonde said, with a lip of scorn,

      To the knight DELORGES—"If the love you have sworn

      Were as gallant and leal as you boast it to be,

      I might ask you to bring back that glove to me!"

      The knight left the place where the lady sate;

      The knight he has pass'd thro' the fearful gate;

      The lion and tiger he stoop'd above,

      And his fingers have closed on the lady's glove!

      All shuddering and stunn'd, they beheld him there—

      The noble knights and the ladies fair;

      But loud was the joy and the praise, the while

      He bore back the glove with his tranquil smile!

      With a tender look in her softening eyes,

      That promised reward to his warmest sighs,

      Fair Cunigonde rose her knight to grace;

      He toss'd the glove in the lady's face!

      "Nay, spare me the guerdon, at least," quoth he;

      And he left forever that fair ladye!

* * * * *

      THE DIVER (1797)

      A BALLAD

      [The original of the story on which Schiller has founded this ballad, matchless perhaps for the power and grandeur of its descriptions, is to be found in Kircher. According to the true principles of imitative art, Schiller has preserved all that is striking in the legend, and ennobled all that is common-place. The name of the Diver was Nicholas, surnamed the Fish. The King appears, according to Hoffmeister's probable conjectures, to have been either Frederic I. or Frederic II., of Sicily. Date from 1295 to 1377.]

         "Oh, where is the knight or the squire so bold,

          As to dive to the howling charybdis below?—

        I cast in the whirlpool a goblet of gold,

          And o'er it already the dark waters flow;

        Whoever to me may the goblet bring,

        Shall have for his guerdon that gift of his king."

        He spoke, and the cup from the terrible steep,

          That, rugged and hoary, hung over the verge

        Of the endless and measureless world of the deep,

          Swirl'd into the maëlstrom that madden'd the surge.

         "And where is the diver so stout to go—

        I ask ye again—to the deep below?"

        And the knights and the squires that gather'd around,

          Stood silent—and fix'd on the ocean their eyes;

        They look'd on the dismal and savage Profound,

          And the peril chill'd back every thought of the prize.

        And thrice spoke the monarch—"The cup to win,

        Is there never a wight who will venture in?"

        And all as before heard in silence the king—

          Till a youth with an aspect unfearing but gentle,

        'Mid the tremulous squires—stept out from the ring,

          Unbuckling his girdle, and doffing his mantle;

        And the murmuring crowd as they parted asunder,

        On the stately boy cast their looks of wonder.

        As he strode to the marge of the summit, and gave

          One glance on the gulf of that merciless main;

        Lo! the wave that forever devours the wave

          Casts roaringly up the charybdis again;

        And, as with the swell of the far thunder-boom,

        Rushes foamingly forth from the heart of the gloom.

        And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars,[6]

          As when fire is with water commix'd and contending,

        And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up-soars,

          And flood upon flood hurries on, never-ending.

        And it never will rest, nor from travail be free,

        Like a sea that is laboring the birth of a sea.

        Yet, at length, comes a lull O'er the mighty commotion,

        As the whirlpool sucks into black smoothness the swell

        Of the white-foaming breakers—and cleaves thro' the ocean

        A path that seems winding in darkness to hell.

        Round and round whirl'd the waves-deeper and deeper

        still driven,

        Like a gorge thro' the mountainous main thunder-riven!

        The youth gave his trust to his Maker! Before

          That path through the riven abyss closed again—

        Hark! a shriek from the crowd rang aloft from the shore,

          And, behold! he is whirl'd in the grasp of the main!

        And o'er him the breakers mysteriously roll'd,

        And the giant-mouth closed on the swimmer so bold.

        O'er the surface grim silence lay dark; but the crowd

          Heard the wail from the deep murmur hollow and fell;

        They hearken and shudder, lamenting aloud—

          "Gallant youth-noble heart-fare-thee-well, fare-thee-well!"

        More hollow and more wails the deep on the ear—

        More dread and more dread grows suspense in its fear.

        If thou should'st in those waters thy diadem fling,

          And cry, "Who may find it shall win it and wear;"

        God wot, though the prize were the crown of a king—

          A crown at such hazard were valued too dear.

        For never shall lips of the living reveal

        What the deeps that howl yonder in terror conceal.

        Oh, many a bark, to that breast grappled fast,

          Has gone down to the fearful and fathomless grave;

        Again, crash'd together the keel and the mast,

          To be seen, toss'd aloft in the glee of the wave.

        Like the growth of a storm, ever louder and clearer,

        Grows the roar of the gulf rising nearer and nearer.

        And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars,

          As when fire is with water commix'd and contending;

        And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up-soars,

          And flood upon flood hurries on, never ending;

        And as with the swell of the far thunder-boom

        Rushes roaringly forth

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