ANASTASIUS GRÜN: “A Salon Scene”

Count Anton Alexander von Auersperg, also known under the pen name of Anastasius Grün (1806-1876), was an Austrian poet and liberal politician. Born in the capital of the Austrian Duchy of Carniola, he received his education first at the University of Graz, then at Vienna, where he studied jurisprudence.

In 1830, Auersperg succeeded to his ancestral property, and in 1832 appeared as a member at the Estates of Carniola on the Herrenbank of the diet in Laibach. Here he distinguished himself by his outspoken criticism of the Austrian government, leading the opposition of the duchy to the exactions of the central power. In 1832 the title of imperial chamberlain was conferred upon him.

After the Revolution of 1848 in Vienna, he represented the district of Laibach in the German Frankfort Parliament, to which he tried in vain to persuade his Slovene compatriots to send representatives. In 1861 he was nominated a life member of the Austrian upper house (Herrenhaus).

Count Auersperg’s first publication, a collection of lyrics, Blätter der Liebe (1830); his second production, Der letzte Ritter (1830), brought his genius to light. It celebrates the deeds and adventures of the emperor Maximilian (1499-1519) in a cycle of poems written in the strophic rhyme of the Nibelungenlied. But Auersperg’s fame rests almost exclusively on his political poetry; two collections entitled Spaziergänge eines Wiener Poeten (1831) and Schutt (1835) created a sensation in Germany by their originality and bold Realism. These two books, which are remarkable not merely for their outspoken opinions, but also for their easy versification and powerful imagery, were the forerunners of the German political poetry of 1840-1848.

A SALON SCENE

(1831)

Evening: In the festive halls the light of many candles gleams,

Shedding from the mirrors' crystal thousand-fold reflected beams.

In the sea of light are gliding, with a stately, solemn air,

Honored, venerable matrons, ladies young and very fair.

And among them wander slowly, clad in festive garments grand,

Here the valiant sons of battle, there the rulers of the land.

But on one that I see moving every eye is fixed with fear--

Few indeed among the chosen have the courage to draw near.

He it is by whose firm guidance Austrians' fortunes rise or sink,

He who in the Princes' Congress for them all must act and think.

But behold him now! How gracious, courteous, gentle he's to all,

And how modest, unassuming, and how kind to great and small!

In the light his orders sparkle with a faint and careless grace,

But a friendly, gentle smile is always playing on his face

When he plucks the ruddy rose leaves that some rounded bosom

 wears, Or when, like to withered blossoms, kingdoms

 he asunder tears.

Equally enchanting is it, when he praises golden curls,

Or when, from anointed heads, the royal crowns away he hurls.

Yes, methinks 'tis heavenly rapture, which delights the happy

man whom his words to Elba's fastness or to Munkacs' 

prison ban.

Could all Europe now but see him, so engaging, so gallant,

How the ladies, young and old, his winning smiles delight,

enchant;  how the church's pious clergy, and the doughty

men of war, and the state's distinguished servants by

his grace enraptured are.

Man of state and man of counsel, since you're in a mood so

kind, since you're showing to all present such a gracious 

frame of mind, see, without, a needy client standing waiting

at your door whom the slightest sign of favor will make

happy evermore.

And you do not need to fear him; he's intelligent and fair;

Hidden 'neath his homely garments, knife nor dagger does

he wear.  'Tis the Austrian people, open, honest, courteous

as can be.  See, they're pleading: "May we ask you for the

freedom to be free?"

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