Fraternity-Testvériség, 1941 (19. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1941-08-01 / 8. szám

TESTVÉRISÉG

11

Yet Avas a cank’ring fruit, bought at the price Of bloodshed, countless tears, and bitter sighs? Where is the builder, where his pomp and pride, Who yesterday still dared the world to guide,

And firmly seated on his throne usurped,

By calls from warning voices undisturbed,

In soft repose reclined on purple cloth,

Secure from retribution’s shafts of wrath?

Wher is the palace of e’erlasting fame,

Built to eclipse his sire’s illustrious name,

Beared to perpetuate, that fearless might Soars with impunity o’er law and right?

All, all have vanished, melted into air,

No vestige, but remembrance now is there;

The cup of guilt, filled to the brim run o’er,

And triumph, crime and man exist no more.

It was the finger’s touch of Nemesis,

That scattere’d to the winds his transient bliss, His paste-board temple levelled to the ground,

And liberty enslaved once more unbound.

That soon or late, aye, sooner perhaps than now, Great stastemen of all shades would like t’avow, Who in benighted blindness humbly bow,

And hold the passing phantom in great awe;

A mighty kingdom’s fate — where is their wit?

To dictates of his haughty will submit;

His Avill, that timid counsels laughs to scorn,

’Tis not of human growth, but heav’nly born;

Inevitably such a dread event

Will bring his brief career to sudden end,

Is logic truth, confirmed by ev’ry age,

And written clearly on th’ historic page.

Or else, eternal justice must be dead,

And right and freedom from the world have fled; The hallowed names of fatherland and home,

Mere empty sounds and hollow words become; Truth, sacred truth, descended from her throne, Her mangled corpse to hide in deserts lone,

And falsehood left in undisputed sway,

Her votaries to persecute and slay;

Goodness and gentleness must henceforth be The savage tiger’s boast and quality;

Virtue and empty dream, of folly born,

Deserving ridicule, contempt, and scorn;

Greatness a mockery, a word of shame,

Entitled to disgrace, but not to fame,

And nobleness a stigma foul and crime,

A felon’s due reward to meet in time.

Thus must the world’s sustaining systems change, And hydra-headed wrong the whole derange;

Or else his eagle’s wings Fate soon will clip,

And crown and sceptre from the despot slip.

Yet, spite of such convincing evidence,

Laid bare, as if revealed by Providence,

The rulers of the people and the press,

(Tho’ with exceptions I’ll with joy confess,

Who bravely dare to break the mighty spell