Erstes Gedicht

ANCIENT HISTORY

Siegfried Sassoon

Adam, a brown old vulture in the rain,

Shivered below his windwhipped olive-trees;

Huddling sharp chin on scarred and scraggy knees,

He moaned and mumbled to his darkening brain;

„He was the grandest of them all – was Cain!

A lion laired in the hills, that none could tire;

Swift as a stag; a stallion of the plain,

Hungry and fierce with deeds of huge desire.“

Grimly he thought of Abel, soft and fair –

A lover with disaster in his face,

And scarlet blossoms twisted in bright hair.

„Afraid to fight; was murder more disgrace?...

God always hated Cain“ ... He bowed his head –

The gaunt old man whose lovely sons were dead.