  (“Mein Pferd geht langsam durch die nacht.”) My steed goes slowly through the night; The moon is half in shadow, With clouds that steal across her light Like lambs across a meadow. A sudden stillness fills my heart, With grief so lately movÈd, For in thy thoughts I have a part, Tonight, my best belovÈd. In every whisper of the wind Thy greeting I discover; O may’st thou in the breezes find The kisses of thy lover. [Decorative image unavailable.] [Decorative image unavailable.] II.(“SchÖne Lilie.”) Spotless lily in the garden, Fair and high on slender stem, In the morning breeze thou wavest Like a dainty silver flame. How thy chalice opens upward To admit the sunlight’s gleam! Scarce unto the earth belonging, Part of Heaven dost thou seem. Ah, thou bearest greetings to me From a being pure as thou, Whom I called my spirit’s spirit, Once with many a loving vow; She who taught me to discover Love that lurks in sorrow’s smart; Now, if I but think upon her Sudden stillness fills my heart. [Decorative image unavailable.] III.There stands the ancient gabled house; The rooms therein how well I know! They’re still as once they were, when first I loved there, long ago. But, like the moon, times change, and hearts, And strangers now the dwelling claim; Another passion fills my breast; Yet is the house the same. Today I went there to the feast; Some memory made my bosom stir, I heeded not the song and jest, I only thought of her,— Of all that we had meant to be, Of all my vanisht youthful years, And of the love that filled her eyes,— Till mine o’erflowed with tears. And when I roused me from the thought, Alas, how changed did all things seem! As though that dream had been my life, And all my life a dream. |
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