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From the German by Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton
“OH, where is the knight or the squire so bold, | |
| As to dive to the howling charybdis below?— | |
| I cast into the whirlpool a goblet of gold, | |
| And o’er it already the dark waters flow: | |
| Whoever to me may the goblet bring, | 5 |
| Shall have for his guerdon that gift of his king.” | |
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| He spoke, and the cup from the terrible steep, | |
| That rugged and hoary, hung over the verge | |
| Of the endless and measureless world of the deep, | |
| Swirled into the maelstrom that maddened the surge. | 10 |
| “And where is the diver so stout to go— | |
| I ask ye again—to the deep below?” | |
| |
| And the knights and the squires that gathered around, | |
| Stood silent—and fixed on the ocean their eyes; | |
| They looked on the dismal and savage profound, | 15 |
| And the peril chilled back every thought of the prize. | |
| And thrice spoke the monarch—“The cup to win, | |
| Is there never a wight who will venture in?” | |
| |
| And all as before heard in silence the king— | |
| Till a youth, with an aspect unfearing but gentle, | 20 |
| ’Mid the tremulous squires, stept out from the ring, | |
| Unbuckling his girdle, and doffing his mantle; | |
| And the murmuring crowd, as they parted asunder, | |
| On the stately boy cast their looks of wonder. | |
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| As he strode to the marge of the summit, and gave | 25 |
| One glance on the gulf of that merciless main; | |
| Lo! the wave that for ever devours the wave, | |
| Casts roaringly up the charybdis again; | |
| And, as with the swell of the far thunder-boom, | |
| Rushes foamingly forth from the heart of the gloom. | 30 |
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| And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars, | |
| As when fire is with water commixed and contending; | |
| And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up-soars, | |
| And flood upon flood hurries on, never ending. | |
| And it never will rest, nor from travail be free, | 35 |
| Like a sea that is laboring the birth of a sea. | |
| |
| And at last there lay open the desolate realm! | |
| Through the breakers that whitened the waste of the swell, | |
| Dark—dark yawned a cleft in the midst of the whelm, | |
| The path to the heart of that fathomless hell. | 40 |
| Round and round whirled the waves—deep and deeper still driven, | |
| Like a gorge thro’ the mountainous main thunder-riven. | |
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| The youth gave his trust to his Maker! Before | |
| That path through the riven abyss closed again— | |
| Hark! a shriek from the crowd rang aloft from the shore, | 45 |
| And, behold! he is whirled in the grasp of the main! | |
| And o’er him the breakers mysteriously rolled, | |
| And the giant-mouth closed on the swimmer so bold. | |
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| O’er the surface grim silence lay dark and profound, | |
| But the deep from below murmured hollow and fell; | 50 |
| And the crowd, as it shuddered, lamented aloud— | |
| “Gallant youth—noble heart—fare-thee-well, fare-thee-well!” | |
| And still ever deepening that wail as of woe, | |
| More hollow the gulf sent its howl from below. | |
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| If thou should’st in those waters thy diadem fling, | 55 |
| And cry, “Who may find it shall win it, and wear;” | |
| God’s wot, though the prize were the crown of a king— | |
| A crown at such hazard were valued too dear. | |
| For never did lips of the living reveal, | |
| What the deeps that howl yonder in terror conceal. | 60 |
| |
| Oh many a ship, to that breast grappled fast, | |
| Has gone down to the fearful and fathomless grave; | |
| Again crashed together, the keel and the mast, | |
| To be seen, tossed aloft in the glee of the wave.— | |
| Like the growth of a storm ever louder and clearer, | 65 |
| Grows the roar of the gulf rising nearer and nearer. | |
| |
| And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars, | |
| As when fire is with water commixed and contending; | |
| And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up-soars, | |
| And flood upon flood hurries on, never ending, | 70 |
| And, as with the swell of the far thunder-boom, | |
| Rushes roaringly forth from the heart of the gloom. | |
| |
| And lo! from the heart of that far-floating gloom, | |
| What gleams on the darkness so swanlike and white? | |
| Lo! an arm and a neck, glancing up from the tomb!— | 75 |
| They battle—the Man with the Element’s might. | |
| It is he—it is he!—In his left hand behold, | |
| As a sign—as a joy! shines the goblet of gold! | |
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| And he breathèd deep, and he breathèd long, | |
| And he greeted the heavenly delight of the day. | 80 |
| They gaze on each other—they shout as they throng— | |
| “He lives—lo, the ocean has rendered its prey! | |
| And out of the grave where the Hell began, | |
| His valor has rescued the living man!” | |
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| And he comes with the crowd in their clamor and glee, | 85 |
| And the goblet his daring has won from the water, | |
| He lifts to the king as he sinks on his knee; | |
| And the king from her maidens has beckoned his daughter, | |
| And he bade her the wine to his cup-bearer bring, | |
| And thus spake the Diver—“Long life to the king! | 90 |
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| “Happy they whom the rose-hues of daylight rejoice, | |
| The air and the sky that to mortals are given! | |
| May the horror below never more find a voice— | |
| Nor Man stretch too far the wide mercy of Heaven! | |
| Never more—never more may he lift from the mirror, | 95 |
| The Veil which is woven with Night and with Terror! | |
| |
| “Quick-brightening like lightning—it tore me along, | |
| Down, down, till the gush of a torrent at play | |
| In the rocks of its wilderness caught me—and strong | |
| As the wings of an eagle, it whirled me away. | 100 |
| Vain, vain were my struggles—the circle had won me, | |
| Round and round in its dance the wild element spun me. | |
| |
| “And I called on my God, and my God heard my prayer, | |
| In the strength of my need, in the gasp of my breath— | |
| And showed me a crag that rose up from the lair, | 105 |
| And I clung to it, trembling—and baffled the death. | |
| And, safe in the perils around me, behold | |
| On the spikes of the coral the goblet of gold! | |
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| “Below, at the foot of that precipice drear, | |
| Spread the gloomy, and purple, and pathless obscure! | 110 |
| A silence of horror that slept on the ear, | |
| That the eye more appalled might the horror endure! | |
| Salamander—snake—dragon—vast reptiles that dwell | |
| In the deep—coiled about the grim jaws of their hell! | |
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| “Dark-crawled—glided dark the unspeakable swarms, | 115 |
| Like masses unshapen, made life hideously; | |
| Here clung and here bristled the fashionless forms, | |
| Here the Hammer-fish darkened the dark of the sea, | |
| And with teeth grinning white, and a menacing motion, | |
| Went the terrible Shark—the hyena of Ocean. | 120 |
| |
| “There I hung, and the awe gathered icily o’er me, | |
| So far from the earth where man’s help there was none! | |
| The one Human Thing, with the Goblins before me— | |
| Alone—in a loneness so ghastly—ALONE! | |
| Fathom-deep from man’s eye in the speechless profound, | 125 |
| With the death of the main and the monsters around. | |
| |
| “Methought, as I gazed through the darkness, that now | |
| A hundred-limbed creature caught sight of its prey, | |
| And darted.—O God! from the far-flaming bough | |
| Of the coral, I swept on the horrible way; | 130 |
| And it seized me, the wave with its wrath and its roar, | |
| It seized me to save—King, the danger is o’er!” | |
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| On the youth gazed the monarch, and marvelled—quoth he, | |
| “Bold Diver, the goblet I promised is thine, | |
| And this ring will I give, a fresh guerdon to thee, | 135 |
| Never jewels more precious shone up from the mine; | |
| If thou ’ll bring me fresh tidings, and venture again, | |
| To say what lies hid in the innermost main!” | |
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| Then outspake the daughter in tender emotion, | |
| “Ah! father, my father, what more can there rest? | 140 |
| Enough of this sport with the pitiless ocean— | |
| He has served thee as none would, thyself hast confest. | |
| If nothing can slake thy wild thirst of desire, | |
| Be your knights not, at least, put to shame by the squire!” | |
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| The king seized the goblet—he swung it on high, | 145 |
| And whirling, it fell in the roar of the tide; | |
| “But bring back that goblet again to my eye, | |
| And I ’ll hold thee the dearest that rides by my side, | |
| And thine arms shall embrace as thy bride, I decree, | |
| The maiden whose pity now pleadeth for thee.” | 150 |
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| In his heart, as he listened, there leapt the wild joy— | |
| And the hope and the love through his eyes spoke in fire, | |
| On that bloom, on that blush, gazed, delighted, the boy; | |
| The maiden she faints at the feet of her sire! | |
| Here the guerdon divine; there the danger beneath; | 155 |
| He resolves!—To the strife with the life and the death! | |
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| They hear the loud surges sweep back in their swell; | |
| Their coming the thunder-sound heralds along! | |
| Fond eyes yet are tracking the spot where he fell— | |
| They come, the wild waters, in tumult and throng, | 160 |
| Rearing up to the cliff—roaring back as before; | |
| But no wave ever brought the lost youth to the shore. | |
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