THE THE CRANES OF IBYCUS. HERE was a man who watched the river flow With Faust and Helen. Shadowy as a dream THE CROWING OF THE RED COCK. ACROSS the Eastern sky has glowed When the long roll of Christian guilt The flicker of a blood-red dawn, Once more the clarion cock has crowed, A million burning rooftrees light Where is the Hebrew's fatherland? The folk of Christ is sore bestead; Against his sires and kin is known, What oceans can the stain remove, Nay, close the book; not now, not here, Even he might nurse revengeful hate, Each crime that wakes in man the beast, Coward? Not he, who faces death, Is visited upon his kind. The lust of mobs, the greed of priest, Who singly against worlds has fought, For what? A name he may not breathe, For liberty of prayer and thought. The angry sword he will not whet, His nobler task is to forget. THE DANCE TO DEATH. [The Dance to Death. A Historical Tragedy.-Songs of a Semite. 1882.] PLACE Nordhausen, Saxony. TIME: May, A. D. 1349. ACT V. SCENE III.-Within the Synagogue. Above in the gallery, women sumptuously attired; some with children by the hand or infants in their arms. Below, the men and boys with silken scarfs about their shoulders. R ABBI JACOB. The Lord is nigh unto the broken heart. Out of the depths we cry to thee, O God! Show us the path of everlasting life; For in thy presence is the plenitude Of joy, and in thy right hand endless bliss. SEVERAL VOICES. Woe unto us who perish! Süsskind von Orb, Thou hast brought down this doom. Would we had heard SÜSSKIND. Brethren, my cup is full! Oh let us die as warriors of the Lord. A JEW. Süsskind, thou speakest well! We will meet death So that the Lord receive us in His tent. SEVERAL VOICES. Amen! amen! amen! we dance to death! [Exit SUSSKIND.] Punish us not in wrath, chastise us not In anger, oh our God! Our sins o'erwhelm [Reënter SÜSSKIND.] SÜSSKIND. Brethren, our prayer, being the last, is granted. From mortal anguish to the ecstasy Of martyrdom, the blessed death of those Who perish in the Lord. I see, I see How Israel's ever-crescent glory makes These flames that would eclipse it dark as blots Of candle-light against the blazing sun. We die a thousand deaths, drown, bleed, and burn; His doom against our tyrants,-lot for lot? Is one who would not die in Israel Rather than live in Christ,-their Christ who smiles On such a deed as this? Let him go forth— He may die full of years upon his bed. Ye who nurse rancor haply in your hearts, Fear ye we perish unavenged? Not so! To-day, no! nor to-morrow! but in God's time, Our witnesses arise. Ours is the truth, We hold His Law, His lamp, His covenant, His pledge. Jew-priest, Jew-poet, Jew-singer, or Jew-saint And everywhere I see them star the gloom In each of these the martyrs are avenged! RABBI JACOB. Bring from the Ark the bell-fringed, silken-bound Scrolls of the Law. Gather the silver vessels, Dismantle the rich curtains of the doors, Bring the Perpetual Lamp; all these shall burn, For Israel's light is darkened, Israel's Law Profaned by strangers. Thus the Lord hath said: "The weapon formed against thee shall not prosper, The tongue that shall contend with thee in judgment, Of the Lord's servants and their righteousness. Declaring that which He hath done. Amen!" |