Through Education Our Motherland Receives Light

THROUGH EDUCATION OUR MOTHERLAND RECEIVES LIGHT

The vital breath of prudent Education

Instills a virtue of enchanting power;

She lifts the motherland to highest station

And endless dazzling glories on her shower.

And as the zephyr's gentle exhalation

Revives the matrix of the fragrant flower,

So education multiplies her gifts of grace;

With prudent hand imparts them to the human race.

For her a mortal-man will gladly part

With all he has; will give his calm repose;

For her are born all science and all art,

That brows of men with laurel fair enclose.

As from the towering mountain's lofty heart

The purest current of the streamlet flows,

So education without stint or measure gives

Security and peace to lands in which she lives.

Where Education reigns on lofty seat

Youth blossoms forth with vigor and agility;

He error subjugates with solid feet,

And is exalted by conceptions of nobility.

She breaks the neck of vice and its deceit;

Black crime turns pale at Her hostility;

The barbarous nations She knows how to tame,

From savages creates heroic fame.

And as the spring doth sustenance bestow

On all the plants, on bushes in the mead,

Its placid plenty goes to overflow

And endlessly with lavish love to feed

The banks by which it wanders, gliding slow,

Supplying beauteous nature's every need;

So he who prudent Education doth procure

The towering heights of honor will secure. 

From out his lips the water, crystal pure,

Of perfect virtue shall not cease to go.

With careful doctrines of his faith made sure,

The powers of evil he will overthrow,

Like foaming waves that never long endure,

But perish on the shore at every blow;

And from his good example other men shall learn

Their upward steps toward the heavenly paths to turn.

Within the breast of wretched humankind

She lights the living flame of goodness bright;

The hands of fiercest criminal doth bind;

And in those breasts will surely pour delight

Which seek her mystic...