James Weldon Johnson (Джеймс Уэлдон Джонсон)
And the Greatest of These Is War
Around the council-board of Hell, with Satan at their head, The Three Great Scourges of humanity sat. Gaunt Famine, with hollow cheek and voice, arose and spoke,-- "O, Prince, I have stalked the earth, And my victims by ten thousands I have slain, I have smitten old and young. Mouths of the helpless old moaning for bread, I have filled with dust; And I have laughed to see a crying babe tug at the shriveling breast Of its mother, dead and cold. I have heard the cries and prayers of men go up to a tearless sky, And fall back upon an earth of ashes; But, heedless, I have gone on with my work. 'Tis thus, O, Prince, that I have scourged mankind." And Satan nodded his head. Pale Pestilence, with stenchful breath, then spoke and said,-- "Great Prince, my brother, Famine, attacks the poor. He is most terrible against the helpless and the old. But I have made a charnel-house of the mightiest cities of men. When I strike, neither their stores of gold or of grain avail. With a breath I lay low their strongest, and wither up their fairest. I come upon them without warning, lancing invisible death. From me they flee with eyes and mouths distended; I poison the air for which they gasp, and I strike them down fleeing. 'Tis thus, great Prince, that I have scourged mankind." And Satan nodded his head. Then the red monster, War, rose up and spoke,-- His blood-shot eyes glared 'round him, and his thundering voice Echoed through the murky vaults of Hell.-- "O, mighty Prince, my brothers, Famine and Pestilence, Have slain their thousands and ten thousands,--true; But the greater their victories have been, The more have they wakened in Man's breast The God-like attributes of sympathy, of brotherhood and love And made of him a searcher after wisdom. But I arouse in Man the demon and the brute, I plant black hatred in his heart and red revenge. From the summit of fifty thousand years of upward climb I haul him down to the level of the start, back to the wolf. I give him claws. I set his teeth into his brother's throat. I make him drunk with his brother's blood. And I laugh ho! ho! while he destroys himself. O, mighty Prince, not only do I slay, But I draw Man hellward." And Satan smiled, stretched out his hand, and said,-- "O War, of all the scourges of humanity, I crown you chief." And Hell rang with the acclamation of the Fiends.
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