Page:Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse by Paul Selver.djvu/280

 

The Father has forgotten.
⁠See this sky,
Where in full glory, you have deemed, he sits:
Cloudless and radiant it softly smiles
With that blue unimpassioned smile, the same
After you, as before you. And the birds,
Scouring the air, and every living creature
That roves the earth, has lived and lives to-day
After a single law,—and that is mine.
The stronger ever preys upon the weaker.
And so with mortals too. This whole wide world
Is my domain. For I am Life itself.
I rule alone. I lurk in hearts and souls,
And none shall hound me out or banish me.
Not you, and not your Father. Your God's kingdom
Is dream. That dream I leave to men for ever.

Under the cross, behold the Roman captain
In peaceful converse with the white-haired scribe!
So shall it ever be. These twain inherit
Your words, your dreams. The one will change his idols,
The other his Jehovah in your name,
And in my covenant the world shall live.

Why did you scorn to take all kingdoms then,
And the world's glory from my bounteous hand?
Then your young life would not have ended here
In shameful pangs, you might have lived untrammelled