The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06. Коллектив авторов
large-mouthed, and small;
They squat round the fire and, frying
Their fishes, they shout and they squall.
The girls all gravely listened,
Not a word was spoken at last;
The ship we could see no longer,
Darkness was settling so fast.
You lovely fisher-maiden,
Bring now the boat to land;
Come here and sit beside me,
We'll prattle hand in hand.
Your head lay on my bosom,
Nor be afraid of me;
Do you not trust all fearless
Daily the great wild sea?
My heart is like the sea, dear,
Has storm, and ebb, and flow,
And many purest pearl-gems
Within its dim depth glow.
My child, we were two children,
Small, merry by childhood's law;
We used to creep to the henhouse,
And hide ourselves in the straw.
We crowed like cocks, and whenever
The passers near us drew—
"Cock-a-doodle!" They thought
'Twas a real cock that crew.
The boxes about our courtyard
We carpeted to our mind,
And lived there both together—
Kept house in a noble kind.
The neighbor's old cat often
Came to pay us a visit;
We made her a bow and courtesy,
Each with a compliment in it.
After her health we asked,
Our care and regard to evince—
(We have made the very same speeches
To many an old cat since).
We also sat and wisely
Discoursed, as old folks do,
Complaining how all went better
In those good old times we knew—
How love, and truth, and believing
Had left the world to itself,
And how so dear was the coffee,
And how so rare was the pelf.
The children's games are over,
The rest is over with youth—
The world, the good games, the good times,
The belief, and the love, and the truth.
E'en as a lovely flower,
So fair, so pure thou art;
I gaze on thee, and sadness
Comes stealing o'er my heart.
My hands I fain had folded
Upon thy soft brown hair,
Praying that God may keep thee
So lovely, pure, and fair.
I would that my love and its sadness
Might a single word convey,
The joyous breezes should bear it,
And merrily waft it away.
They should waft it to thee, beloved,
This soft and wailful word,
At every hour thou shouldst hear it,
Where'er thou art 'twould be heard.
And when in the night's first slumber
Thine eyes scarce closing seem,
Still should my word pursue thee
Into thy deepest dream.
The shades of the summer evening lie
On the forest and meadows green;
The golden moon shines in the azure sky
Through balm-breathing air serene.
The cricket is chirping the brooklet near,
In the water a something stirs,
And the wanderer can in the stillness hear
A plash and a sigh through the furze.
There all by herself the fairy bright
Is bathing down in the stream;
Her arms and throat, bewitching and white,
In the moonshine glance and gleam.
I know not what evil is coming,
But my heart feels sad and cold;
A song in my head keeps humming,
A tale from the times of old.
The air is fresh and it darkles,
And smoothly flows the Rhine;
The peak of the mountain sparkles
In the fading sunset-shine.
The loveliest wonderful maiden
On high is sitting there,
With golden jewels braiden,
And she combs her golden hair.
With a golden comb sits combing,
And ever the while sings she
A marvelous song through the gloaming
Of magical melody.
It hath caught the boatman, and bound him
In the spell of a wild, sad love;
He sees not the rocks around him,
He sees only her above.
The waves through the pass keep swinging,
But boatman or boat is none;
And this with her mighty singing
The Lorelei hath done.
TWILIGHT36
30
Translator: James Thomson. Permission The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., London.
31
Translator: Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Permission The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., London.
32
Translator: Kate Freiligrath-Kroeker. Permission The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., London.
33
Translator: "Stratheir." Permission The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., London.
34
Translator: Sir Theodore Martin. Permission William Blackwood & Sons, London.
35
Translator: James Thomson. Permission The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., London.
36
Translator: Kate Freiligrath-Kroeker. Permission The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., London.