Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/189

 Dammed out? It wants but a gap, a canal,-
 * like a flood of life would the waters rush
 * in through the channel, and fill the desert!
 * Soon would the whole of yon red-hot grave
 * spread forth, a breezy and rippling sea.
 * The oases would rise in the midst, like islands;
 * Atlas would tower in green cliffs on the north;
 * sailing-ships would, like stray birds on the wing,
 * skim to the south, on the caravans' track.
 * Life-giving breezes would scatter the choking
 * vapours, and dew would distil from the clouds.
 * People would build themselves town on town,
 * and grass would grow green round the swaying palm-trees.
 * The southland, behind the Sahara's wall,
 * would make a new seaboard for civilisation.
 * Steam would set Timbuctoo's factories spinning;
 * Bornu would be colonised apace;
 * the naturalist would pass safely through Habes
 * in his railway-car to the Upper Nile.
 * In the midst of my sea, on a fat oasis,
 * I will replant the Norwegian race;
 * the Dalesman's blood is next door to royal;
 * Arabic crossing will do the rest.
 * Skirting a bay, on a shelving strand,
 * I'll build the chief city, Peeropolis.
 * The world is decrepit! Now comes the turn
 * of Gyntiana, my virgin land!
 * [Springs up.]
 * Had I but capital, soon 'twould be done.-
 * A gold key to open the gate of the sea!
 * A crusade against Death! The close-fisted old churl
 * shall open the sack he lies brooding upon.
 * Men rave about freedom in every land;-
 * like the ass in the ark, I will send out a cry
 * o'