I do this the more readily
because I have recently seen, to my astonishment, Heine placed beside
Goethe as representing the better temper of the Germanic civilization as
opposed to the blinded judgment and immoral hatred of the modern German
Empire:
Germany's still a little child,
But he's nursed by the sun, though tender;
He is not suckled on soothing milk,
But on flames of burning splendor.
One grows apace on such a diet;
It fires the blood from languor;
Ye neighbor's children, have a care,
This urchin how ye anger!
He is an awkward infant giant,
The oak by the roots uptearing;
He'll beat you till your backs are sore,
And crack your crowns for daring.
He is like Siegfried, the noble child,
That song-and-saga wonder,
Who, when his fabled sword was forged,
His anvil cleft in sunder!
To you, who will our Dragon slay,
Shall Siegfried's strength be given;
Hurrah! how joyfully your nurse
Will laugh on you from heaven!
The Dragon's hoard of royal gems
You'll win, with none to share it;
Hurrah! how bright the golden crown
Will sparkle when you wear it!
But it would not be stranger than many other things which have happened
in human history if the defeat of German military imperialism should
result in restoring to Europe and spreading more widely over the world
the beneficent influence of Germanic civilization.
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