C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Love Songs

From ‘Poems and Ballads’: Translation of Emma Lazarus

THOU seemest like a flower,

So pure and fair and bright;

A melancholy yearning

Steals o’er me at thy sight.

I fain would lay in blessing

My hands upon thy hair;

Imploring God to keep thee

So bright, and pure, and fair.

THOU fairest fisher-maiden,

Row thy boat to the land.

Come here and sit beside me,

Whispering, hand in hand.

Lay thy head on my bosom,

And have no fear of me;

For carelessly thou trustest

Daily the savage sea.

My heart is like the ocean,

With storm and ebb and flow;

And many a pearl lies hidden

Within its depths below.

THE OCEAN hath its pearls,

The heaven hath its stars,

But oh! my heart, my heart,

My heart hath its love.

Great are the sea and the heavens,

But greater is my heart;

And fairer than pearls or stars

Glistens and glows my love.

Thou little youthful maiden,

Come unto my mighty heart!

My heart, and the sea, and the heavens

Are melting away with love.