(Set to Music by FELIX MENDELSSOHN and J. NATHAN.) UN of the sleepless! melancholy star! far, That show'st the darkness thou canst not dispel, How like art thou to joy remember'd well! So gleams the past, the light of other days, ERE my bosom as false as thou deem'st it to be, W I need not have wander'd from far Galilee ; It was but abjuring my creed to efface The curse which, thou say'st, is the crime of my race. If the bad never triumph, then God is with thee! I have lost for that faith more than thou canst bestow, As the God who permits thee to prosper doth know; In his hand is my heart and my hope-and in thine The land and the life which for him I resign. H, Mariamne! now for thee The heart for which thou bled'st is bleeding; Revenge is lost in agony, And wild remorse to rage succeeding. Oh, Mariamne! where art thou? Thou canst not hear my bitter pleading: Ah! could'st thou-thou would'st pardon now, Though Heaven were to my prayer unheeding. And is she dead?-and did they dare My wrath but doom'd my own despair : The sword that smote hers o'er me waving. But thou art cold, my murder'd love! And leaves my soul unworthy saving. She's gone, who shared my diadem ; And I have earn'd those tortures well. Which unconsumed are still consuming! |