TRANSLATIONS OF BÜRGER'S LENORE
97
"Barb! barb! methinks the cock's shrill horn
Warns that our sand is nearly run:
Barb! barb! I scent the gales of morn,
Haste, that our course be timely done.
Our course is done; our sand is run!
The nuptial bed the bride attends;
This night the dead have swiftly sped;
Here, here, our midnight travel ends!"
Warns that our sand is nearly run:
Barb! barb! I scent the gales of morn,
Haste, that our course be timely done.
Our course is done; our sand is run!
The nuptial bed the bride attends;
This night the dead have swiftly sped;
Here, here, our midnight travel ends!"
Full at a portal's massy grate
The plunging steed impetuous dash'd:
At the dread shock, wall, bars, and gate,
Hurl'd down with headlong ruin crash'd.
Thin, sheeted phantoms gibbering glide
O'er paths, with bones and fresh skulls strewn,
Charnels and tombs on every side
Gleam dimly to the blood red moon.
The plunging steed impetuous dash'd:
At the dread shock, wall, bars, and gate,
Hurl'd down with headlong ruin crash'd.
Thin, sheeted phantoms gibbering glide
O'er paths, with bones and fresh skulls strewn,
Charnels and tombs on every side
Gleam dimly to the blood red moon.
Lo, while the night's dread glooms increase,
All chang'd the wondrous horseman stood,
His crumbling flesh fell piece by piece,
Like ashes from consuming wood.
Shrunk to a skull his pale head glares,
High ridg'd his eyeless sockets stand,
All bone his length'ning form appears;
A dart gleams deadly from his hand.
All chang'd the wondrous horseman stood,
His crumbling flesh fell piece by piece,
Like ashes from consuming wood.
Shrunk to a skull his pale head glares,
High ridg'd his eyeless sockets stand,
All bone his length'ning form appears;
A dart gleams deadly from his hand.
The fiend horse snorts; blue fiery flakes
Collected roll his nostrils round;
High rear'd, his bristling mane he shakes,
And sinks beneath the rending ground.
Demons the thundering clouds bestride,
Ghosts yell the yawning tombs beneath;
Leonora's heart, its life-blood dried,
Hangs quiv'ring on the dart of death.
Collected roll his nostrils round;
High rear'd, his bristling mane he shakes,
And sinks beneath the rending ground.
Demons the thundering clouds bestride,
Ghosts yell the yawning tombs beneath;
Leonora's heart, its life-blood dried,
Hangs quiv'ring on the dart of death.
Throng'd in the moon's eclipsing shade,
Of fiends and shapes a spectre crown
Dance featly round th' expiring maid,
And howl this awful lesson loud:
"Learn patience, though thy heart should break,
Nor seek God's mandates to controul!
Now this cold earth thy dust shall take,
And Heav'n relenting take thy soul!"
Of fiends and shapes a spectre crown
Dance featly round th' expiring maid,
And howl this awful lesson loud:
"Learn patience, though thy heart should break,
Nor seek God's mandates to controul!
Now this cold earth thy dust shall take,
And Heav'n relenting take thy soul!"
