The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #161011   Message #3822691
Posted By: keberoxu
25-Nov-16 - 02:05 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Highway for Freedom (Herwegh/Mangan)
Subject: Lyr Add: Fire and Light (Herwegh/Mangan)
Here's another pair.

FIRE AND LIGHT

[from the German of Herwegh: written during the conflagration at Hamburg,
in May, 1842.]

    "Bewahrt das Feuer und das Licht." -- Old Cry of the German Watchmen.

And smoke and flames, aloft and under,
And blackened skeleton palace halls,
Fain would I lift a voice of thunder,
Albeit I know none heeds its calls.
No matter; Devastation governs
The present and the looming Night;
And I must warn till Morn -- ye sovereigns,
Beware, take care, of Fire and Light!
Must warn as Watchman -- O, ye sovereigns,
Beware, take care, of fire and Light!

Deep in men's hearts, those darker Hamburgs,
The fierce volcanic forges glow;
Your states and towns, and seeming calm burgs
Nurse that within which passeth show.
Beware! the flames that smoulder, hidden,
Are truly treacherous in their might,
And may ere soon burst forth unbidden,
Beware, take care, of fire and Light!
May all, too soon, burst forth unbidden,
Beware, take care, of Fire and Light!

Beware, the Fire, the Light we kindle!
If, of the two great rival Powers
Now arming, one be doomed to dwindle,
'Tis you and yours, not we and ours!
'Tis Guilt, not Innocence, that winces
When men call Heaven to aid the Right --
Again I warn you! O ye Princes,
Beware, take care, of Fire and Light!
As Watchmen warn you! O ye Princes,
Beware, take care, of Fire and Light!

From land to land of startled Europe
The meteor symbol spreads and speeds --
The morning Dawn, the Flag of sure hope,
The Future's Book to him who reads!
Still sweeps it forth as first it swept, red
And chainless over vale and height --
Beware, the sign, ye thirty sceptered!
Beware, take care, of Fire and Light!
Beware the bodeful sign, ye sceptered!
Beware, take care, of Fire and Light!

pages 293 - 294,
Poetical Pieces, in
Essays in Prose and Verse
by James Clarence Mangan
edited by C. P. Meehan, C.C.
Dublin: James Duffy and Sons, 1884