C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Chorus from ‘The Count of Carmagnola’
By Alessandro Manzoni (1785–1873)
O
On the left hand a trumpet replying,
The field upon all sides resounding
With the tramping of foot and of horse.
Yonder flashes a flag; yonder, flying
Through the still air, a bannerol glances;
Here a squadron embattled advances,
There another that threatens its course.
Is hid, and on swords the sword ringeth;
In the hearts of each other they sheathe them;
Blood runs,—they redouble their blows.
Who are these? To our fair fields what bringeth,
To make war upon us, this stranger?
Which is he that hath sworn to avenge her,
The land of his birth, on her foes?
One speech; and the foreigner names them
All brothers, of one generation;
In each visage their kindred is seen:
This land is the mother that claims them,
This land that their life-blood is steeping,
That God, from all other lands keeping,
Set the seas and the mountains between.
To strike at the heart of his brother?
What wrong or what insult hath stung them
To wipe out what stain, or to die?
They know not: to slay one another
They come in a course none hath told them;
A chief that was purchased hath sold them;
They combat for him, nor ask why.
For the wives of the warriors maddened!
Why come not their loved ones to tear them
Away from the infamous field?
Their sires, whom long years have saddened,
And thoughts of the sepulchre chastened,
In warning why have they not hastened
To bid them to hold and to yield?
His own happy threshold, the smiling
Clown watches the tempest that lowers
On the furrows his plow has not turned,
So each waits in safety, beguiling
The time with his count of those falling
Afar in the fight, and the appalling
Flames of towns and of villages burned.
Thou shalt hear little children with scorning,
Learn to follow and flout at the brothers
Whose blood they shall go forth to shed;
Thou shalt see wives and maidens adorning
Their bosoms and hair with the splendor
Of gems but now torn from the tender
Hapless daughters and wives of the dead.
With the slain the earth’s hidden already;
With blood reeks the whole plain, and vaster
And fiercer the strife than before!
But along the ranks, rent and unsteady,
Many waver,—they yield,—they are flying!
With the last hope of victory dying,
The love of life rises again.
The grain in its breath, the grain flashes,
So over the field of their losses
Fly the vanquished. But now in their course
Starts a squadron that suddenly dashes
Athwart their wild flight and that stays them,
While hard on the hindmost dismays them
The pursuit of the enemy’s horse.
And yield life and sword to his keeping;
In the shouts of the victors assembling,
The moans of the dying are drowned.
To the saddle a courier leaping,
Takes a missive, and through all resistance,
Spurs, lashes, devours the distance;
Every hamlet awake at the sound.
To the hoof-beaten road do they gather?
Why turns every one to his neighbor
The jubilant tidings to hear?
Thou know’st whence he comes, wretched father!
And thou long’st for his news, hapless mother!
In fight brother fell upon brother!
These terrible tidings I bring.
The temples are decked; the song swelleth
From the hearts of the fratricides, voicing
Praise and thanks that are hateful to God.
Meantime from the Alps where he dwelleth
The stranger turns hither his vision,
And numbers with cruel derision
The brave that have bitten the sod.
Fill again your battalions, and rally
Again to your banner! Insulting
The stranger descends, he is come!
Are ye feeble and few in your sally,
Ye victors? For this he descendeth!
’Tis for this that his challenge he sendeth
From the fields where your brothers lie dumb!
Thou that knew’st not in peace how to tend them,
Fatal land! now the stranger thou fearedst
Receive, with the judgment he brings!
A foe unprovoked to offend them
At thy board sitteth down and derideth,
The spoil of thy foolish divideth,
Strips the sword from the hand of thy kings.
For the bloodshedding blest, or oppression?
To the vanquished alone comes harm never;
To tears turns the wrong-doer’s joy!
Though he ’scape through the years’ long progression,
Yet the vengeance eternal o’ertaketh
Him surely; it waiteth and waketh;
It seizes him at the last sigh!
Ransomed all by one only redemption
Near or far, rich or poor, high or lowly,
Wherever we breathe in life’s air;
We are brothers by one great pre-emption
Bound all; and accursed be its wronger,
Who would ruin by right of the stronger,
Wring the hearts of the weak with despair.