O, German Fatherland! dear German people! I am thy Kunz von der Rosen. The man whose real office was pastime, and who should only make thee merry in happy days, forces his way into thy prison, in time of need; here, beneath my mantle, I bring thee thy strong sceptre and the beautiful crown--dost thou not remember me, my emperor? If I cannot free thee, I will at least console thee, and thou shalt have some one by thee who will talk with thee about thy most pressing oppressions, and will speak courage to thee, and who loves thee, and whose best jokes and best blood are ever at thy service. For thou, my people, art the true emperor, the true lord of the land--thy will is sovereign and more legitimate than that purple _Tel est notre plaisir_, which grounds itself upon divine right, without any better guarantee than the quackery of shaven jugglers--thy will, my people, is the only righteous source of all power. Even though thou liest down there in fetters, thy good right will arise in the end, the day of freedom draws near, a new time begins--my emperor, the night is over, and the dawn shines outside. "Kunz von der Rosen, my Fool, thou errest. Thou hast perhaps mistaken a bright axe for the sun, and the dawn is nothing but blood." "No, my Emperor, it is the sun, though it rises in the west--for six thousand years men have always seen it rise in the east--it is high time that it for once made a change in its course." "Kunz von der Rosen, my Fool, thou hast lost the bells from thy red cap, and it now has such a strange look, that red cap!" "Ah, my Emperor, I have shaken my head in such mad earnest over your distress that the fool's bell fell from my cap; but it is none the worse for that!" "Kunz von der Rosen, my Fool, what is that breaking and cracking outside there?" "Hush! it is the saw and the carpenter's axe; the doors of your prison will soon be broken in, and you will be free, my Emperor!" "Am I then really Emperor? Alas! it is only the Fool who tells me so!" "Oh, do not sigh, my dear lord, it is the air of the dungeon which so dispirits you; when you have once regained your power, you will feel the bold imperial blood in your veins, and you will be proud as an emperor, and arrogant, and gracious, and unjust, and smiling, and ungrateful as princes are." "Kunz von der Rosen, my Fool, when I am free again, what wilt thou be doing?" "I will sew new bells on my cap." "And how shall I reward thy fidelity?" "Ah! dear master--do not let me be put to death!" ENGLISH FRAGMENTS. [The _English Fragments_, from which three chapters have been selected for this volume, were published in 1828 in a German magazine of which Heine was one of the editors. They were collected and published with important additions (including the following chapters) in 1831. Mr. Leland's translation, revised throughout, has been here used.] LONDON.