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On the Morning of the Fight near Dannenberg
Translated by C. T. Brooks
AWFUL omens, dark and ruddy, | |
| Usher in this morn of wrath, | |
| And the sun looks cold and bloody | |
| Out upon our bloody path. | |
| Startling news a world will waken | 5 |
| Ere a few more hours are past, | |
| And e’en now the lots are shaken, | |
| And the iron die is cast. | |
| Brothers, the night-shades are flying!—take warning. | |
| Now, by the fresh, holy light of the morning, | 10 |
| Swear, hand in hand, to be true to the last. | |
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| In the gloom of nights behind us | |
| Insult, ignominy frown,— | |
| Foreign slaves, with chains to bind us, | |
| And our German oak bowed down. | 15 |
| Shamed has been the speech our mothers | |
| Taught us, and our God blasphemed; | |
| We have pawned our honor;—brothers, | |
| German brothers, be it redeemed! | |
| Brothers, the hour is come! Side by side stand now! | 20 |
| Turn Heaven’s wrath from your loved native land now! | |
| Let the Palladium—the lost—be redeemed! | |
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| In the smile of hope before us | |
| Lies a golden future time; | |
| Open, sunny skies bend o’er us; | 25 |
| There, in Freedom’s blissful clime, | |
| German art and music greet us, | |
| Woman’s grace and love’s delight, | |
| All old forms of greatness meet us, | |
| Beauty’s charms again invite. | 30 |
| But bloody-red must that morning be breaking: | |
| Brothers, our life’s last warm drop we are staking: | |
| Our hope blooms only in martyrdom’s night! | |
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| Yet, God help, we will not falter; | |
| As one man we ’ll meet the foe, | 35 |
| Lay our heart on Freedom’s altar, | |
| And to death, unshrinking, go. | |
| Fatherland, for thee we dare it; | |
| At thy word we do and die, | |
| That our loved ones may inherit | 40 |
| This day’s blood-bought liberty. | |
| Free German oaks, let your branches be sweeping | |
| Long o’er the graves where our ashes are sleeping!— | |
| Fatherland, hear our oath! bear it on high! | |
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| One last look, ere yet we sever | 45 |
| Ties that long have bound us fast; | |
| Be the poisonous south forever, | |
| With its charms, behind us cast. | |
| Yet stay not the tear that ’s springing, | |
| Comrades, in each manly eye: | 50 |
| To the winds a last kiss flinging, | |
| Give them up to God on high. | |
| To all the warm lips that for us shall be pleading, | |
| To all the fond hearts that shall lie crushed and bleeding, | |
| God of all might and all mercy, be nigh! | 55 |
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| Forth! To battle now, unshrinking! | |
| Upward, heavenward, hearts and eyes! | |
| Every earthly sun is sinking, | |
| And the unfading splendors rise. | |
| German brothers, quail not,—never! | 60 |
| Let each nerve a hero tell! | |
| Faithful hearts part not forever; | |
| For a little space, farewell! | |
| Hark! They advance! How the deep thunder crashes! | |
| Brothers, charge home through the hailstones and flashes! | 65 |
| We meet again in heaven! Farewell! | |
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