New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-17
A Voice from the
Front
Continued from frst column Of this pao,


Is it not much more important to have ,v.,
in this time than to live through it?
Shall in peace browse once more in an.,...
foios, toll up stone staircases, By lamuNss,
still vainly seek to win your love, 0 fa,.,s
friend?
Could I submit again to all the old bopds,.
. of conventions after Lies values have bee,
so completely altered? Should be able 70 A.
without the scent of the moist soil which ria,
from these hills and mountains? And could !.
rose. plucked in well-ordered city gard,
ever be to me what the coral-red mountain -,
tree is. which shmmers in the light above on,
dug-out?
I have seen pictures which were more VIM
derful than the gold-framed ones in the gre,
galleries.
have seen heroes die, disappearing proud,
and without murmur into the great Niryana
I have seen brooks as red with blood a,
those which flow down from the hills Of Car.
rara are white with the dust Of the marN,
quarries.
L
in overpowering pictures, painted in sunse,
reds and pigments of fire.
Airmen, like beautiful magic birds out Of
Arabian tales, circling in the ether and then
suddenly falling, stricken by a shot from an
anti-aircraft gun.
Zeppelins gliding darky through blue sum.
mer nights, as dignifed and stately as amba~
sailors from another world.
How could |, after all this recover my tasts
for the tanner pictures of peace? Perhaps
should see only the dust on the old folio covers
and nv memories would always be more alur.
ing to me than all the possibilities Of the future
Therefore do not grieve for me if some day.
sooner or later, your letters to me come back
marked undeliverable
1t would have been seemly for you 70 weep
if had fallen in the first weeks Of this fsteivl
period. But not now, when long months have
passed and hecatombs of heroes have persisted.
An unexampled sacrifice Of human lives! Bu!
now that the sacrifice has become limitless,
the individual can no longer demand anything
for himself.
We. who have lived for year on Deaths
threshold, fear him not. He is TO US no strange
fearful figure He is a familiar neighbor,
who stands before anothers door and any hour
NAV stand before ours. And We greet him with
our ewes when we are tired and worn with
never ceasing battles:
Come! You do not brighten u. We are as
strong as you are
have three books in my knapsack-HOmer,
the New Testament and Faust"
A little legacy for you, if | depart. As in
the lode of Propertius,' which in my school,
days translated into rhymed verses, on
iasmine-scented summer evenings by the moor
embankment at home:
"Drei Butcher nehm' ich mt Won dieser Erde,
Die ch der bleichen Kora schenken VERDE
But no! What would the heather goddess
do with my New Testament?
Rather shall write my name in the volumes
honored friend, and if sometimes you run your
fingers through the pages may you remember
that my weary eyes have rested on their lines
in the uncounted nights when the hard worA
was over. the thunder ceased 70 roll and the
dead were buried.
But do not wish me back!
You and the others shall enjoy wnst inc
future brings, when the dome Of the new era
towers in splendor over the German lands "nen
the fruits so dearly paid for ripen But We
shall gladly stretch our wsr-weary limos III
the fresh turned earth. We shall ENJOY ou'
we-earned sleep free from cares or misg''
ings. For we press onward in the CONVICTION
that God leads our people forward WIN h'
pillar of fire.
And if at the last moment the blood rusne.
in our ears it sounds to US like the beating Oh
the wings of the Eagle of Victory. We sm'e,
proud that we. too, in this great drama Oh
sacrifice are permitted to cast the tiny m','
of our existence into the brazen scales IN wn'"
the fate of the world is being readJusted'
Jupiter shines through the twigs OF ui'
mountain ash into my dugout My cande =
burned out. If it were not, might venture "
say what my unready lips have so often oaiAel
at saying-how much love you'll lend OF ny
SOUL so dear, so unattainable. But the "ss
drops already on my hand. must wait un'''
another morning sun arises.