An Den Mond [English translation]

Again thou fillest bush and vale

With hushed and misty gleam;

And now at last thou settest too

My soul full free to dream;1

Castest down upon my realm

Thy gaze so soothingly,

As friends would turn a tender eye

My fated lot to see.

My heart feels every echo faint

Of long-past gloom or bliss;

I vacillate 'twixt joy and pain

Wrapped in loneliness.2

Flow, flow, dear river, flow!

I never shall be glad;

So fled from me both jest and kiss

And so, the trust I had.

Yet I possessed it long ago,

That thing so dear and rare!

That we, though it be but torment now,

Can ne'er forget it, ne'er!

Murmer, river, through the vale,

Make no rest nor ease;

Murmer, whisper with my song

Your sweetest melodies!3

When thou, upon a Winter's night

Angrily dost swell,

Or 'round the Springtime's finery

Of young buds forth dost well.

Blessed he who from the world,

Not hating, hides away;4

But one friend to his bosom holds,

That they together may5

Enjoy that which, to most unknown,

Or held in low esteem,6

Through the Labyrinth of the human breast

Wanders while men dream.7

Cowardly thinking

Fearful shrinking8

Womanly havering

Anxious wavering9

Can't forestall sorrow

Won't make you free

Against all commanding

Defiantly standing

Never bending

Fiercely defending10

Summons the arms

Of the gods to our side!

1. "to dream" added for the rhyme2. "wrapped" added for meter3. "your sweetest" added for meter4. literally "shuts himself away;" changed for meter5. content enjambed into the next verse for meter6. literally "never thought of;" changed for rhyme7. literally "at night;" changed for rhyme8. literally "dithering;" changed for rhyme9. literally "complaining;" changed for rhyme10. literally "showing strength;" changed for rhyme