C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
The Maidens Lament
By Friedrich von Schiller (17591805)
T
The clouds gather o’er;
The maiden sits lonely
Beside the green shore;
The breakers are dashing with might, with might:
And she mingles her sighs with the gloomy night,
And her eyes are dim with tears.
And broken my heart,
Nor aught to my wishes
The world can impart.
Thou Holy One, call now thy child from below;
I have known all the joys that the world can bestow—
I have lived and have loved.”—
Flows tear upon tear!
Human woe never waketh
Dull Death’s heavy ear!
Yet say what can soothe for the sweet vanished love,
And I, the Celestial, will shed from above
The balm for thy breast.”
Flow tear upon tear;
Human woe never waketh
Dull Death’s heavy ear:
Yet still when the heart mourns the sweet vanished love,
No balm for its wound can descend from above
Like Love’s sorrows and tears.