The Pilgrim at the Gates of St Yuste
Original version (German):
“Der Pilgrim vor St Just” by August von Platen-Hallermünde
Nacht ist′s und Stürme sausen für und für,
Hispanische Mönche, schließt mir auf die Tür!
Laßt hier mich ruhn, bis Glockenton mich weckt,
Der zum Gebet euch in die Kirche schreckt!
Bereitet mir was euer Haus vermag,
Ein Ordenskleid und einen Sarkophag!
Gönnt mir die kleine Zelle, weiht mich ein,
Mehr als die Hälfte dieser Welt war mein.
Das Haupt, das nun der Schere sich bequemt,
Mit mancher Krone ward′s bediademt.
Die Schulter, die der Kutte nun sich bückt,
Hat kaiserlicher Hermelin geschmückt.
Nun bin ich vor dem Tod den Toten Gleich,
Und fall in Trümmer, wie das alte Reich.
English version:
“The Pilgrim at the Gates of St Yuste” translated by Raymond Youngs
It's night, and storms are raging evermore.
You Spanish monks, open to me your door.
Give me a bed, that I may slumber there
Until the bell shall rouse us all to prayer.
From what your house provides, two things I crave:
The habit of a monk, and then a grave.
Grant me a narrow cell within your shrine.
Yesterday more than half the world was mine.
The head which with a razor will be shorn
Once many noble diadems has borne.
The shoulder that the cowl now must bear
Did formerly imperial ermine wear.
Like ancient Rome, a ruined wreck am I
Now I am like the dead before I die.
Commentary:
This poem was written by August Graf von Platen-Hallermünde 1796-1835, a Bavarian nobleman who combined a cult of classical beauty with an austere pessimism. It relates to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V whose territories in the European and American continents were the first collection of realms to be referred to as the “Empire on which the sun never sets”. He abdicated in 1556, and entered the Spanish monastery of St Yuste. The harsh conditions described in the poem are somewhat overdrawn: a small palace was built for him in the monastery. He still took an interest in the affairs of the empire, but died in September 1558. I have kept to the structure of the rhyming decameter couplets, because I think they best convey the starkness of the contrasts between the Emperor’s former and future lives.