Page:Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse by Paul Selver.djvu/327

 

But wherewith, O Slavdom, didst thou requite
This bloody debt unto the foreigner? Verily, by blood,
But by the blood of thy heroes in many a contest
With the sinister wildness of Asia, which with darkness
Threatened to quench even that tiny ray of twilight
Which flickered in the west of the World. Even then, conceiving
Thy task magnificent as befits thy potency, thou didst not strive
Many a time for vengeance when hazard favoured thee;
The best hazard didst thou shape for thyself, as a mediator
Towards a seeing and a sightless world—to be intercessor
For the one, and against onslaughts of the other
To hold out thine heroic breast as a shield.

And as thou stoodest proud

In twofold glory, so now thou standest on the marge

Of these two worlds as a giant whose stature can cope with
The supreme mission on earth: with one hand thou clutchest
Western stars of enlightenment, with the other thou sheddest them
Over the gloom of the east; but this is not thy sole renown;