Now he has arisen: he, who slept so long,
from the depth arisen, out of arches strong.
Huge he stands and unknown in the twilight land,
and the moon he crushes in his blackened hand.
Broad on city’s evening, broad and angrily
shadow falls, and frost of strange obscurity
makes the market’s bustle stop in icy scare.
Silence reigns. They turn – and no one is aware.
In the street it comes to touch her shoulders light:
Just a question. Answerless. A face goes white.
From afar sound whining abbey bells so thin
and the beards are quaking round the pointed chin.
High up, on the mountains, he begins to dance,
and he cries: You fighters, rise up and advance!
Echoes sound: around his shaking, blackened head
swings a chain of skulls he wrenched from thousand dead.
Tower-like he squashes embers’ dying gleam
and, where day is fleeing, fills with blood the stream.
Countless are the corpses swept into the reeds,
covered by white feathers, where the vulture feeds.
He stands over ramparts blue of flames around,
over darkened streets with heavy weapons sound,
over broken gates where gatemen lie across,
over bridges bending under human dross.
Through the night he chases fire across the world:
red-fanged hound of hell with savage scream unfurled.
Out of darkness leaps dominion of night,
frightful at its border shine volcanoes bright.
And a thousand redcaps, pointed far and wide,
litter up the dark plain, flicker up astride.
Who below in alleys still runs to and fro
he sweeps in the fire, that it hotter grow.
And the flames are leaping, burning tree by tree.
Yellow bats of fire clawing endlessly.
And he thrusts his kiln-staff, dark and charcoal-bound
deep amongst the trees to stoke the flames around.
An important city, chocked in yellow glow,
jumped without a whisper to the depths below,
while he stands, a giant, over glowing urns,
wild, in bloody heavens, thrice his torch he turns
over stormstrung clouds reflecting fiery brands,
to the deadly dark of frigid desert sands,
down he pours the fires, withering the night,
phosphorus and brimstone on Gomorrha bright.
(Georg Heym)
More Poetry from Georg Heym:
Georg Heym Poems based on Topics: Dancing, Silence, Fire, Cry, Light, Nature, World, Faces, Cities, Hell, NightReaders Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: World Poems, Night Poems, Light Poems, Nature Poems, Faces Poems, Cry Poems, Fire Poems, Silence Poems, Cities Poems, Hell Poems, Dancing PoemsBased on Keywords: volcanoes, brimstone, clawing, stoke, phosphorus, squashes, tower-like, answerless, redcaps, gatemen, chocked
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