Ballads, Translated or Imitated,
From the German,
German, Etc.
IMITATED FROM THE "LENORE" OF BURGER.
FROM heavy dreams fair Helen rose,
And eyed the dawning red:
'Alas, my love, thou tarriest long!
O art thou false or dead?'
With gallant Frederick's princely power
He sought the bold Crusade,
But not a word from Judah's wars
Told Helen how he sped.
With Paynim and with Saracen
At length a truce was made, And every knight returned to dry The tears his love had shed.
Our gallant host was homeward bound
With many a song of joy;
Green waved the laurel in each plume,
The badge of victory.
And old and young, and sire and son,
To meet them crowd the way,
With shouts and mirth and melody,
The debt of love to pay.
Full many a maid her true-love met,
And sobbed in his embrace,
And fluttering joy in tears and smiles
Arrayed full many a face.
Nor joy nor smile for Helen sad,
She sought the host in vain;
For none could tell her William's fate,
If faithless or if slain.
The martial band is past and gone;
She rends her raven hair,
And in distraction's bitter mood
She weeps with wild despair.
'O, rise, my child,' her mother said,
'Nor sorrow thus in vain ;
A perjured lover's fleeting heart
No tears recall again.'
'O mother, what is gone is gone,
What's lost forever lorn:
Death, death alone can comfort me;
O had I ne'er been born!
'O, break, my heart, O, break at once!
Drink my life-blood, Despair!
No joy remains on earth for me,
For me in heaven no share.'
'O, enter not in judgment, Lord!'
The pious mother prays;
'Impute not guilt to thy frail child!
She knows not what she says.
'O, say thy pater-noster, child!
O, turn to God and grace!
His will, that turned thy bliss to bale,
Can change thy bale to bliss.'
'O mother, mother, what is bliss?
O mother, what is bale?
My William's love was heaven on earth,
Without it earth is hell.
'Why should I pray to ruthless Heaven,
Since my loved William's slain?
I only prayed for William's sake,
And all my prayers were vain.'
'O, take the sacrament, my child,
And check these tears that flow;
By resignation's humble prayer,
O, hallowed be thy woe!"
'No sacrament can quench this fire,
Or slake this scorching pain;
No sacrament can bid the dead
Arise and live again.
'With song and clang at morrow's dawn Ye may inter the dead: To-night I ride with my young bride
To deck our bridal bed.
'Come with thy choir, thou coffined guest,
To swell our nuptial song!
Come, priest, to bless our marriage feast!
Come all, come all along!'
Ceased clang and song; down sunk the bier;
The shrouded corpse arose : And hurry! hurry! all the train
The thundering steed pursues.
And forward! forward! on they go;
High snorts the straining steed;
Thick pants the rider's laboring breath,
As headlong on they speed.
'O William, why this savage haste?
And where thy bridal bed?'
'Tis distant far, low, damp, and chill,
And narrow, trustless maid.'
'No room for me?'-'Enough for both;
Speed, speed, my barb, thy course!'
O'er thundering bridge, through boiling
He drove the furious horse.
Tramp! tramp! along the land they rode,
Splash! splash! along the sea;
The scourge is wight, the spur is bright,
The flashing pebbles flee.
Fled past on right and left how fast
Each forest, grove, and bower!
On right and left fled past how fast
Each city, town, and tower!
'Dost fear? dost fear? The moon shines clear,
Dost fear to ride with me?Hurrah! hurrah! the dead can ride!''O William, let them be!
'See there, see there! What yonder swings And creaks mid whistling rain?'. 'Gibbet and steel, the accursed wheel; A murderer in his chain. —
Hollo! thou felon, follow here:
To bridal bed we ride;
And thou shalt prance a fetter dance
Before me and my bride.'
And, hurry! hurry! clash, clash, clash!
The wasted form descends;
And fleet as wind through hazel bush
The wild career attends.
'Barb! Barb! methinks I hear the cock;
The sand will soon be run :
Barb! Barb! I smell the morning air;
The race is well-nigh done.'
Tramp! tramp! along the land they rode,
Splash! splash! along the sea;
The scourge is red, the spur drops blood,
The flashing pebbles flee.
'Hurrah! hurrah! well ride the dead;
The bride, the bride is come;
And soon we reach the bridal bed,
For, Helen, here's my home.'
Reluctant on its rusty hinge
Revolved an iron door,
And by the pale moon's setting beam
Were seen a church and tower.
With many a shriek and cry whiz round
The birds of midnight scared;
And rustling like autumnal leaves
Unhallowed ghosts were heard.
O'er many a tomb and tombstone pale He spurred the fiery horse,
Till sudden at an open grave
He checked the wondrous course.
The falling gauntlet quits the rein,
Down drops the casque of steel, The cuirass leaves his shrinking side, The spur his gory heel.
The eyes desert the naked skull,
The mouldering flesh the bone,
Till Helen's lily arms entwine
A ghastly skeleton.
The furious barb snorts fire and foam,
And with a fearful bound
Dissolves at once in empty air,
And leaves her on the ground.
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