THE judgment-day shall come, the hour of reckoning.
Ah, the good shepherd then shall crush the tigers,And from the wolves drag forth their evil hearts.The husbandman upon his threshing-floorShall sunder wheat from chaff. Earth, sinful garden,Shall quake with dread, having not hills enoughTo hide her guiltiness, nor waters enoughTo cleanse away her shame. The spotless lambHath heralded its advent, even asThe bridegroom of our souls his marriage-feast.
Jesus, the lanterns of our hearts are kindled,And the flame lights the gloom unto Thy path.O come, O come, and guide us from our exileUnto the promised land to deathless feasts.Unto Thy glory and Thy godly sway,Where chant the angels and the seraphim,And where the martyrs dwell in exaltationAmid the holiness of Thine apostles.
Thrice blessed are the ones who dared to shedTheir blood for exaltation of Thy name.Them didst thou spare the other pangs of life,Didst turn temptation from them, and the snaresWhich the base world doth garnish for the body.O, holy judge, succour Thy suppliants,Open to us the portals from this life,Whereon we beat in tearful throes of yearning.
Why didst thou not commit our lives to us,Why set thy ban on casting them aside,When they are burdens? Why are they a stronghold,Whence by its will the soul may not depart?
O grant Thou that the world may shatter this dungeonAnd in its rage destroy the stronghold’s rampartsBefore thy judgment-day is come. The dayIs near, but greater is our longing. GrantThat we become the blood-stained witnessesUnto Thy words, Thy truth, as Thine exemplar,Grant unto us, O Lord, a martyr’s crown,The which more swiftly leads unto Thy glory.
O grant it soon, grant it betimes, O Lord,Ere Thine annunciation be fulfilled,Ere come destruction’s day. Neither the dayIs certain, nor the hour,-only Thy wordsWe have, O Lord. Behold our woe, vouchsafeTo us the boon of them whose bodies hereSleep biding resurrection. Or enjoinAngels to trumpet forth the judgment-dayAnd, wielding Thy sword of sovereignty, ascendThy throne, for we are pining with desire,And this, our life, has now become a torment.The Poison from Judaea (1906)
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.
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This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1942, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 82 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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| Translation: |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1970, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 54 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
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