Chapter IV: Part I: Deciding Forces (3)

Was weinst du, Sturm?--Hinab, Erinnerungen!
dort pulst im Dunst der Weltstadt zitternd Herz!
Es grollt ein Schrei von Millionen Zungen
nach Glück und Frieden: Wurm, was will dein Schmerz!
Nicht sickert einsam mehr von Brust zu Brüsten,
wie einst die Sehnsucht, als ein stiller Quell;
heut stöhnt ein _Volk_ nach Klarheit, wild und gell,
und du schwelgst noch in Wehmutslüsten?

Siehst du den Qualm mit dicken Fäusten drohn
dort überm Wald der Schlote und der Essen?
Auf deine Reinheitsträume fällt der Hohn
der Arbeit! fühl's: sie ringt, von Schmutz zerfressen.
Du hast mit deiner Sehnsucht bloss gebuhlt,
in trüber Glut dich selber nur genossen;
schütte die Kraft aus, die dir zugeflossen,
und du wirst frei vom Druck der Schuld![9]

Pour out the power that has flowed in upon thee! Surrender thyself! That too is Verhaeren's ecstatic cry at this hour. Opposites touch. _Supreme solitude is turned to supreme fellowship_. The poet feels that self-surrender is more than self-preservation. All at once he sees behind him the frightful danger of this self-seeking pain.

Et tout à coup je m'apparais celui
Qui s'est, hors de soi-même, enfui
Vers le sauvage appel des forces unanimes.[10]

And he who in days gone by had fled from this appeal into cold solitude, now casts himself ecstatically into the arms of the world, with the I deepest yearning

De n'être plus qu'un tourbillon
Qui se disperse au vent mystérieux des choses.[11]

He feels that in order to live to the full all the greatness and beauty of this fiery world, he must multiply himself, be a thousandfold and ten thousandfold what he is. 'Multiplie-toi!' Be manifold. Surrender thyself! For the first time this cry bursts up like a flame. Be manifold!

Multiplie et livre-toi! Défais
Ton être en des millions d'êtres;
Et sens l'immensité filtrer et transparaître.[12]

Only from this brotherhood with all things accrue the possibilities of being a modern poet. Only by self-surrender to everything that is could Verhaeren attain to so grandiose a conception of contemporary manifestations, only thus could he become the poet of the democracy of cities, of industrialism, of science, the poet of Europe, the poet of our age. Only such a pantheistic feeling could create this intimate relationship between the world of self and the world surrounding self, the relationship which subsequently ends in an unparalleled identity: only so despairing a 'no' could be transformed to so enraptured a 'yes,' only one who had fled from the world could possess it with such passion.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 'Un Soir' (_Au Bord de la Route_).

[2] 'Le Forgeron' (_Les Villages Illusoires_).

[3] 'Saint Georges' (_Les Apparus dans mes Chemins_).

[4] Goethe's _Faust_, 1. 784.

[5] 'Les Saintes' (_Les Apparus dans mes Chemins_).

[6] 'Les Saintes' (_Les Apparus dans mes Chemins_).

[7] 'Saint Georges' (_Ibid_).

[8] 'Le Forgeron' (_Les Villages Illusoires_).

[9] 'Why weepest thou, O storm?--Down, memories! Yonder in the smoke pulses the great city's trembling heart! A million grumbling tongues are crying for peace and happiness: worm, what would thy pain! Yearning no longer trickles lonely from breast to breasts, a quiet source and no more: to-day a _nation_ groans, and with wild, shrill voices demands clearness--and thou still revellest in the joys of melancholy?

'Seest thou the reek and smoke threatening yonder over the forest of flues and chimneys? Upon thy dreams of purity falls the scorn of labour! Feel it: labour is struggling, eaten up with dirt! Thou hast but wantoned with thy yearning, thou hast but enjoyed thyself in turbid heat; pour out the power that has flowed in upon thee, and thou shalt be free from the burden of guilt!'--'Bergpsalm' (_Aber die Liebe_).

[10] 'La Foule' (_Les Visages de la Vie_).

[11] 'Celui du Savoir' (_Les Apparus dans mes Chemins_).

[12] 'La Forêt' (_Les Visages de la Vie_).