(1777;
this second version published 1789)
Flooding
with a brilliant mist
Valley,
bush and tree,
You release me. Oh for once
Heart and soul I'm free!
Easy on
the region round
Goes your
wider gaze,
Like a
friend's indulgent eye
Measuring
my days.
Every echo
from the past,
Glum or
gaudy mood,
Haunts
me – weighing bliss and pain
In
the solitude.
River,
flow and flow away;
Pleasure's
dead to me:
Gone the
laughing kisses, gone
Lips and
loyalty.
All in my possession once!
Such a treasure yet
Any man would pitch in pain
Rather than forget.
Water,
rush along the pass,
Never
lag at ease;
Rush,
and rustle to my song
Changing
melodies,
How
in dark December you
Roll
amok in flood;
Curling,
in the gala May,
Under
branch and bud.
Happy
man, that rancor-free
Shows
the world his door;
One
companion by – and both
In
a glow before
Something
never guessed by men
Or
rejected quite:
Which,
in mazes of the breast,
Wanders
in the night
Translated by Christopher Middleton