Thursday, August 25:
Zu des König’s Geburtstag. 25 Aug. 1870.
Gesprochen ist das Königswort,
dem Deutschland neu erstanden,
der Völker edler Ruhmeshort,
befreit aus schmähl’chen Banden;
was nie gelang der Klugen Rath,
das schuf ein Königswort zur That:
in allen deutschen Landen
das Wort nun tönet fort und fort.
Und ich verstand den tiefen Sinn
wie keiner ihn ermessen;
Schuf es dem Volke Siegsgewinn.
mir gab das Wort Vergessen;
vergraben durft’ ich manchen Schmerz,
der lange mir genagt das Herz,
das Leid, das mich besessen,
blickt’ ich auf Deutschland’s Schmach dahin.
Der Sinn, der in dem Worte lag,
war Dir auch unverborgen:
der treu des edlen Hortes pflag,
er theilte meine Sorgen.
Von Wotan bangend ausgesandt,
sein Rabe gute Kund’ ihm fand:
es strahlt der Menschheit Morgen;
nun dämm’re auf, du Göttertag.
For the King’s Birthday, 25 August 1870
Spoken has been the Kingly word
wherefrom Germany anew is risen,
the nations’ noble bastion of glory,
released from ignominious bands;
what wise counsel never could effect
a Kingly word has transformed into deed:
in all the German lands
that word now sounds forth and resounds.
And its deep sense I did understand
as no other person understood it;
if for the people it meant victory,
for me that word brought a forgetting;
and I could inter many a grief
that had long been gnawing at my heart,
and the suffering that had possessed me
as often as I gazed on Germany’s shame.
And the meaning that lay in that word
also did not stay concealed from you:
he who staunchly kept the noble hoard,
was participator in my sorrows.
By Wotan, in anxiety, sent forth,
tidings his raven found him that were good:
the dawn of humanity sends out its beams;
shine now brightly forth, you Godly Day.