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

1941-08-01 / 8. szám

20

TESTVÉRISÉG

Whate’er thy false accusers may pretend;

Vain their attempts, and tho’ in loftier strain, They shower’d praises on doomed Austria’s reign, Proclaimed the truth and justice of the strong,

To prove the Hapsburg’s right and Hung’ry’s wrong! No acts of mercy can revive the slain By Haynau murdered, nor wipe off the stain Inflicted by the human tiger’s hand On thine oppressed and suff’ring fatherland;

No acts of mercy can from minds expel The mem’ry of the foulest deed of hell,

By which the bravest heroes of our time,

The noblest patriots, whose only crime Was true devotion to their native land,

Were doomed to die by felons’ hangman’s hands; Whose cruel injuries and dreadful woes Have shed immortal glory on their cause,

But branded with the deepest stain the day That saw the wrong, and had no word to say;

That knew their agonies in dungeons pent,

Their foeman’s wrath and thirst for blood unbent, Yet made no efforts tyrants’ rage to check,

But left the martyrs in the storm to wreck.

No, no, the precious blood at Arad shed,

Where Hung’ry’s truest sons for Hung’ry bled,

Has closed the long account with Hapsbug’s race, And found a verdict which wTill end their case:

The ties are sever’d and must so remain,

E’en Mercy cannot make them whole again! —

Hail, then, to Kossuth, freedom’s cherished son!

Who will regain the prize he once had won;

Whose glory from oblivion’s clouds secure,

Will last while time and history endure;

Whom nature moulded from her finest clay With skillful fingers, that she might display To coming ages of her fondest care A monument in him as bright as rare,

And ’gainst the heavy charge a strong protest,

That in the hour of need she was at rest,

Neglected to send forth the master-mind,

(No foult of hers, if man to genius blind,

Refused to recognize sound reason’s lord,

And witli contemptuous smile flung him o’erboard) Required the gravest duties to perform,

And steer the vessel safely thro’ the storm,

Within whose hold was stowed a freight sublime: The welfare of mankind in future time;

On whom she did bestow with great delight Her choicest gifts: the love of truth and right,

Of freedom, justice, magnanimity,

And hate intense of wrong and tyranny;

Of greater value and more solid worth,

Than pomp and splendour, wealth and pride, on earth The false, but glitt’ring phantoms, which enshroud The potentates in magic’s dazzling cloud.

Continue, then, O Kossuth, thus arrayed,