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

Author Unknown

Translation of Francesca Alexander

I SOWED a bank with love, but all in vain,

For never one unlucky blade would grow!

It may be that it failed for want of rain;

Perhaps the seed was bad,—I do not know.

But all the seed I sowed on yonder plain,

I thought was love, ’twas only common grain;

And on that hill the seed that I let fall

Was only common barley after all!

The clouds have gathered, and I hear the rain;

The storm has troubled every fountain clear.

Love’s fountain ne’er shall flow so bright again!

But stay! the sun’s beginning to appear!

Love’s fountain trembles when the storm it sees;

But while it rains, the sun shines on the trees.

If Heaven would grant the only joy I seek,

To move thy house and set it close to mine,

From window then to window we could speak,

And in two hearts would full contentment shine;

And in two hearts, with joy too great to tell,

Would love sincere and full contentment dwell.