Fraternity-Testvériség, 1941 (19. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1941-08-01 / 8. szám
TESTVÉRISÉG 21 To vindicate, by tyrants undismayed, By folly’s censure undisturbed the right Of nations ’gainst oppressive despots’ might. The duties fate allotted to thy share, A heavy load, thou cheerfully wilt bear: The consciousness to fight for truth and right, Would make a heavier burden feather-light. The mission great entrusted to thy care, Will be achieved, thy foes are well aware; The goal is distant, but the longest night Must yield at last to morning's dawning light! — My task is o’er; my humble muse is mute, Called from her cradle eager to refute With truthful weapons charges false and mean, Brought forward ’gainst the noblest cause, to clean The Hapsburg’s blood-stained hands; to justify His treach’rous deed, which fetter’d Hungary, And in the basest, vilest terms t’ entreat A tyrant’s aid a despot to defeat, Whose cause is his, whose fall predicts his own, And whom t’ offend great Austria dare not frown. Accept, O Kossuth, then, with kind exuse, This feeble effort of my infant muse, Who dares assert, that from an upright heart Her utt’rings flowed, if unadorned by art; Who boldly dared to speak a foreign tongue, But hopes forgiveness for her faulty song; Who did not blindly hasten to defend Thy sacred cause, and ’gainst thy foes contend, But driven by convictions firm and strong. That right is thine, and that thy foes are wrong; Who far from wishing but to add a mite To thy just fame, which fills thy foes with spite, Obeyed the ardent impulse on some day, A tribute small of grateful love to pay, In due acknowledgement of thy desert, Obtained in liberty’s defence expert, And by thy brave attempts to save from shame, The freemen’s land, the freemen’s boast and fame! January, 1855 Edward Kriens, Professor Modern Languages and Literature, London, 1856
