A grey veil has settled all around.
I know not: will the sun break through
Or will this fog completely mask it, today;
And will it rise; and will it fall again?
So might I ask- but the world maintains its silence
And meadow and valley are filled with haze.
The woodland steams, a smoking altar,
A cautious eagle crosses the sky alone,
It would rather rise to the sun above—
Yet, only as a dreary point in the sea of ether
Does it appear today. Otherwise, all is grey about-
So sinister is this silence.
Our time portrayed! A fogbank surrounds us—
No raging weather, no sunshine glint—
The world wrapped up in a great wide cloud!
No eagle's eye detects the splendour of sun—
The sun of freedom— it is completely masked—
A sluggish silence pervading the people.
Louise Otto-Peters (1819- 1895) Germany
Translated by David Paley
Source: Poems Without Frontiers
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