Translations from the German

Three Songs From The German Of Emanuel Geibel.

I.

(�Mein Pferd geht langsam durch die nacht.�)

My steed goes slowly through the night;
The moon is half in shadow,
With clouds that steal across her light
Like lambs across a meadow.

A sudden stillness fills my heart,
With grief so lately mov�d,
For in thy thoughts I have a part,
Tonight, my best belov�d.

In every whisper of the wind
Thy greeting I discover;
O may�st thou in the breezes find
The kisses of thy lover.

II.

(�Sch�ne Lilie.�)

Spotless lily in the garden,
Fair and high on slender stem,
In the morning breeze thou wavest
Like a dainty silver flame.

How thy chalice opens upward
To admit the sunlight�s gleam!
Scarce unto the earth belonging,
Part of Heaven dost thou seem.

Ah, thou bearest greetings to me
From a being pure as thou,
Whom I called my spirit�s spirit,
Once with many a loving vow;

She who taught me to discover
Love that lurks in sorrow�s smart;
Now, if I but think upon her
Sudden stillness fills my heart.

III.

There stands the ancient gabled house;
The rooms therein how well I know!
They�re still as once they were, when first
I loved there, long ago.

But, like the moon, times change, and hearts,
And strangers now the dwelling claim;
Another passion fills my breast;
Yet is the house the same.

Today I went there to the feast;
Some memory made my bosom stir,
I heeded not the song and jest,
I only thought of her,—

Of all that we had meant to be,
Of all my vanisht youthful years,
And of the love that filled her eyes,—
Till mine o�erflowed with tears.

And when I roused me from the thought,
Alas, how changed did all things seem!
As though that dream had been my life,
And all my life a dream.