Page:Masterpieces of German literature volume 18.djvu/363

 ISOLDE KURZ (1853-)

NEKROPOLIS

CITY is standing in the waves

That rose from deepest lair,

There each of the houses the water laves

And kisses each marble stair;

There palaces stand in their glory's pride

And gilded is pillar and wall,

But over the battlements far and wide

Destruction is brooding for all.

No sound of wheel or of hoof is known

The lion to wake from his dream.

But low from the Lido the night-winds moan

And sea-gulls ocean-wards scream.

The moon makes silver the silent tide,

The gondolas glide their way,

And sea-weeds on the water ride —

Like storm-tossed corpses stray.

Oh pearl, thou of all in the deep most fair,

Thou beauty out of the sea,

Where are thy daughters with golden hair

Thy sons oh where may they be?

And where is thy splendor, the gleam of thy gold.

That all the earth would dread?

The arts that so many a heart would hold?

Where is thy realm? With the dead.

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