Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Bridegroom
I slept, — ’twas midnight, — in my bosom woke,
As though ’twere day, my love-o’erflowing heart;
To me it seemed like night, when day first broke;
What is’t to me, whate’er it may impart?
She was away; the world’s unceasing strife
For her alone I suffer’d through the heat
Of sultry day; oh, what refreshing life
At cooling eve!–my guerdon was complete.
The sun now set, and wand’ring hand in hand,
His last and blissful look we greeted then;
While spake our eyes, as they each other scann’d:
“From the far east, let’s trust, he’ll come again!”
The Coy One
One Spring-morning bright and fair,
Roam’d a shepherdess and sang;
Young and beauteous, free from care,
Through the fields her clear notes rang:
So, Ia, Ia! le ralla
Of his lambs some two or three
Thyrsis offer’d for a kiss;
First she eyed him roguishly,
Then for answer sang but this:
So, Ia, Ia! le ralla
Ribbons did the next one offer,
And the third, his heart so true
But, as with the lambs, the scoffer
Laugh’d at heart and ribbons too,–
Still ’twas Ia! le ralla
The Convert
As at sunset I was straying
Silently the wood along,
Damon on his flute was playing,
And the rocks gave back the song,
So la, Ia!
Softly tow’rds him then he drew me;
Sweet each kiss he gave me then!
And I said, “Play once more to me!”
And he kindly play’d again,
So la, la!
All my peace for aye has fleeted,
All my happiness has flown;
Yet my ears are ever greeted
With that olden, blissful tone,
So la, la!
