Fraternity-Testvériség, 1941 (19. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1941-02-01 / 2. szám
18 TESTVÉRISÉG KOSSUTH He is coming—he is coming—Kossuth, tried and true and brave, Even now his ship is riding on the broad Atlantic wave. Every strong blast from the eastward bring him nearer and more near; But a few brief days of waiting, and the hero will be here. Far more noble in disaster and defeat, the gallant Hun, Than Napoleon, Alexander, on the proudest field they won. They who fight for law of power, lust of gold, or hope of glory Blacken o’er the page of History with a dark and mournful story; On their names the curse of thousands mingles with the world’s loud praise, And the blood of needless slaughter soils the greenest of their bays But for those whose sword is wielded in the course of liberty, That the fetters may be broken and all the oppressed go free— Blessed is the strife they lead—holy is the Avar they wage— And their fame, in fadeless lustre, stars the darkness of their age. Such are thou, heroic Magyar! and the deeds thou hast done Set thee side by side with Hampden, Hofer, Tell and Washington! What though now the Austrian Vulture gloats upon the heaps of slain And is lost, for now, the battle—it was never fought in vain. Let him flap his gory pinions, utter loud his harshest cries; For a single warrior fallen, shall a hundred warriors rise! Once again the shout of victory from the Magyar shall be heard, And the arrow of destruction shall bring down the cruel bird! Welcome Kossuth! Welcome Chieftain, spirit fetterless and free! Let us pledge the glorious present and the past proud memory. Honor in the living heroes! honor to the brave who fell! Each lias kept his faith untarnished, each his trust has guarded well For the wrong that these have suffered, for what thou yet may endure, Be the vengeance quick and whelming, the reward be swift and sure. Long enough has ancient Tyranny held stern and bloody sway; It must perish—it must perish—and we all “invoke the day” Let it come through fields of carnage, seas of slaughter — better far Than the slow death of oppression all the massacre of war! Let it reign till Hungary’s soil, home of the true and the bra\’e Freer than our own America, bears not a single slave. Katherine Ledyard From: “The National Era," Washington, D. C. December 11, 1851.
