New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-04
The Original Song of Hatred
Blu Joseph |. c. Clarke

A little while since read in your columns
Ginning from "Notes and Queries con-
corning the earlier German "Song of Hate,
which much interested nc, inasmuch as II
stated that the song had been translated py
Thackeray in reviewing the second edition
1342) of Georg Herwegh's volume Of reVo-
lutionary verse which had first seen the light
in Switzerland the year before. Thither
young Herwegh had fed from the military
service of his king, following a scrape with
his superior officers He was Southern
German born Of fairly well-to-do parents IN
Stuttgart, the chief city OF Wurtemoerg'
and seems TO have imbibed anti-monarchicai
ideas in his early years, for his whole vol
ume of verse, printed when he was twenty
four. and which made a sensation through
all Germany in its day, shines with the
democratic spirit and holds rooted antipa-
thy to the kingly brood. In his Lied vom
Hassep this is efectually summed up
Thackeray himself felt that in his English
version of the rude, hearty song its spirit
had "evaporated." He says:
"'Wir haben lang genug geliebt
IND wollen endich hassen,
are gallant. fierce lines of obloquy, and the
kissing of the word hassen,' as well as the
rattle and spirit of the double rhyme, are not
TO be had in English, where the versliier mas
but p poor stock of disyllabic rhymes"
This, of course, is not true, though true
enough, no doubt, of Thackeray, particularly
the Thackeray of 1912. 1t was certainly
not at all true to one poet and seer under
whose mystical gaze the fiery young Ter
mans new volume came in the library OF
Trinity College, Dublin. Perched on step
ladder he probably was as he read II, MS
Wild blond hair dishevelled, his long, me
fingers beating time to the rhythm and
weird ecstasy in his starry blue eyes. This
WAS James Clarence Mangan. who wrote
poetry for his bread, gaining little TO butter
il withal. after the immemorial fashion OF
poets. His translation has all the rough
vigor of the original. 1t hesitates not over
dsyllable rhymng, but booms along with it
in a sweep of lurid song.
Lissauers modern imitation of Herwegh's
war note of hatred is directed against Eng
land, which nation it curses uphill, down
dale and round the corner with volubility
of singing epithet to cause envy in the
most conceited breasts in Berlin, and has
received wide attention through fairly good
TRANSACTIONS here. Should not our people
see what use one South German could make
Of hatred in his day, and know something OF
the swing of his deadly song? Herwegh
was not licking the dust at the feet OF
Kaiser and abusing the Kaiser's enemy
meanwhile, but wrote hating all kings, kali
sers. mobiles and titled satraps and squirting
the oppressed and exploited peoples to cast
them down That is the burden of his song
and it is even more vital to-day than it was
when he penned it. The hope of humanity
in this war-smtten time for peace that
will endure lies surely in the triumph every
where Of the democratic spirit, the over
throw of the legend of conquest, the recOg-
rition of equal rights for all peoples.
When his day came to fight for his ideals
Georg Herwegh was not found wanting, but
he could hate better with his pen than with