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

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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 proudIn 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;