Loud upon its hinges sounding, Open springs the brazen door, Barbarossa and his followers Walk in bright array once more. On his helm the crown he beareth, Swords are glancing, harps are ringing, All before the monarch bending Emanuel Geibel. Tr. W. W. Caldwell. BARBAROSSA'S FIRST AWAKENING. STEPPED in the crimson sunlight Reposed the golden plain, As if the yellow cornfields Were bathed in blood-red rain; Full darkly loomed Kyffhäuser Through fog which slowly broke, When first the spellbound Kaiser From his long sleep awoke. A look of royal anger On his vassals round he threw: "I slept in deepest slumber, Who dared such deed to do? Who, braving all my fury, "Who caused that sudden clashing "There I beheld a monarch, "Beside them on the scaffold, The headsman, waiting stood. "Sudden the shrilly clarions Rang out with murderous glee ; Hear you the king's commandment ? His signal do you see? One captive flung his gauntlet Among the crowd below, Which murmured like the ocean When the hoarse storm-winds blow! "His head that first pale victim Lays firm upon the oak; "T is severed with a stroke! "Lo! where the heads are rolling On mine own shattered shield, Who has this fearful vision, To scare my sleep, revealed? Who, braving all my fury, From slumber dragged me so, And called in hollow accents, 'Woe, Hohenstaufen, woe! The dwarfs, all pale and trembling, "We know not who, O monarch, Would dare do such a thing وو That very time at Naples On a scaffold dripping blood! 'T was then the bearded monarch The end of his own race; Of his long slumber fled. Ferdinand Freiligrath. Tr. J. McCarthy. The Kaiser he is sitting Upon an ivory throne; His beard it is not flaxen, As in a dream he noddeth, "Dwarf, get thee to the gateway, "For if the ancient ravens Are flying still around, A hundred years to slumber By magic spell I'm bound." Friedrich Rückert. Tr. H. W. Dulcken. |