Page:Masterpieces of German literature volume 18.djvu/386

 THE SEAFARER

HE ship was bursting with a mighty crash.

Ablaze were bow and deck and every mast.

The old boat pitching rose to port: a splash—

A surging of gray waves—the gale's shrill blast—

Thundering orders—prayers—then cry on cry—

A blow, a headlong fall—God stand me by!—

Down, down. Black night upon all senses fell.

Mate, fill my glass! This yarn is long to tell.

'T was in the deep I saw—I saw that sight.

They have no day down there, they have no night.

The sand is shimmering green. There planks lie scattered,

A giant mast in livid splinters shattered.

And up from pallid vines rise bubbles whirling—

From vines that evermore are swaying, curling,

Their long and wary tendril-arms unfurling.

And glistening shells among the wreckage lie

That snap without a sound when prey floats by,

And there are fish with lustre livid pale

That beat their tails transparent as a veil.

A restless host is wandering on down there,

A thousand thousand, an unnumbered band:

Their hands are stiff, their eyes unseeing stare,

With leaden feet they wade across the sand,

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