Yet greater is my heart, And fairer than pearls and stars Flashes and beams my love.
Thou little, youthful maiden, Come unto my great heart;My heart, and the sea, and the heaven Are melting away with love!
POETIC APHORISMS
FROM THE SINNGEDICHTE OF FRIEDRICH VON LOGAUMONEY
Whereunto is money good?
Who has it not wants hardihood, Who has it has much trouble and care, Who once has had it has despair.
THE BEST MEDICINES
Joy and Temperance and Repose Slam the door on the doctor's nose.
SIN
Man-like is it to fall into sin, Fiend-like is it to dwell therein, Christ-like is it for sin to grieve, God-like is it all sin to leave.
POVERTY AND BLINDNESS
A blind man is a poor man, and blind a poor man is;For the former seeth no man, and the latter no man sees.
LAW OF LIFE
Live I, so live I, To my Lord heartily, To my Prince faithfully, To my Neighbor honestly.
Die I, so die I.
CREEDS
Lutheran, Popish, Calvinistic, all these creeds and doctrines three Extant are; but still the doubt is, where Christianity may be.
THE RESTLESS HEART
A millstone and the human heart are driven ever round;If they have nothing else to grind, they must themselves be ground.
CHRISTIAN LOVE
Whilom Love was like a tire, and warmth and comfort it bespoke;But, alas! it now is quenched, and only bites us, like the smoke.
ART AND TACT
Intelligence and courtesy not always are combined;Often in a wooden house a golden room we find.
RETRIBUTION
Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all.
TRUTH
When by night the frogs are croaking, kindle but a torch's fire, Ha! how soon they all are silent! Thus Truth silences the liar.
RHYMES
If perhaps these rhymes of mine should sound not well in strangers' ears, They have only to bethink them that it happens so with theirs;For so long as words, like mortals, call a fatherland their own, They will be most highly valued where they are best and longest known.
SILENT LOVE
Who love would seek, Let him love evermore And seldom speak;For in love's domain Silence must reign;Or it brings the heart Smart And pain.
BLESSED ARE THE DEAD
BY SIMON DACH
Oh, how blest are ye whose toils are ended!
Who, through death, have unto God ascended!
Ye have arisen From the cares which keep us still in prison.
We are still as in a dungeon living, Still oppressed with sorrow and misgiving;Our undertakings Are but toils, and troubles, and heart-breakings.
Ye meanwhile, are in your chambers sleeping, Quiet, and set free from all our weeping;No cross nor trial Hinders your enjoyments with denial.
Christ has wiped away your tears for ever;Ye have that for which we still endeavor.
To you are chanted Songs which yet no mortal ear have haunted.
Ah! who would not, then, depart with gladness, To inherit heaven for earthly sadness?
Who here would languish Longer in bewailing and in anguish?
Come, O Christ, and loose the chains that bind us!
Lead us forth, and cast this world behind us!
With Thee, the Anointed, Finds the soul its joy and rest appointed.
WANDERER'S NIGHT-SONGS
BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
I
Thou that from the heavens art, Every pain and sorrow stillest, And the doubly wretched heart Doubly with refreshment fillest, I am weary with contending!
Why this rapture and unrest?
Peace descending Come, ah, come into my breast!
II
O'er all the hill-tops Is quiet now, In all the tree-tops Hearest thou Hardly a breath;The birds are asleep in the trees:
Wait; soon like these Thou too shalt rest.
REMORSE
BY AUGUST VON PLATEN
How I started up in the night, in the night, Drawn on without rest or reprieval!
The streets, with their watchmen, were lost to my sight, As I wandered so light In the night, in the night, Through the gate with the arch mediaeval.
The mill-brook rushed from the rocky height, I leaned o'er the bridge in my yearning;Deep under me watched I the waves in their flight, As they glided so light In the night, in the night, Yet backward not one was returning.
O'erhead were revolving, so countless and bright, The stars in melodious existence;And with them the moon, more serenely bedight;--They sparkled so light In the night, in the night, Through the magical, measureless distance.
And upward I gazed in the night, in the night, And again on the waves in their fleeting;Ah woe! thou hast wasted thy days in delight, Now silence thou light, In the night, in the night, The remorse in thy heart that is beating.
FORSAKEN.
Something the heart must have to cherish, Must love and joy and sorrow learn, Something with passion clasp or perish, And in itself to ashes burn.
So to this child my heart is clinging, And its frank eyes, with look intense, Me from a world of sin are bringing Back to a world of innocence.
Disdain must thou endure forever;
Strong may thy heart in danger be!
Thou shalt not fail! but ah, be never False as thy father was to me.
Never will I forsake thee, faithless, And thou thy mother ne'er forsake, Until her lips are white and breathless, Until in death her eyes shall break.
ALLAH
BY SIEGFRIED AUGUST MAHLMANN
Allah gives light in darkness, Allah gives rest in pain, Cheeks that are white with weeping Allah paints red again.
The flowers and the blossoms wither, Years vanish with flying fleet;But my heart will live on forever, That here in sadness beat.
Gladly to Allah's dwelling Yonder would I take flight;There will the darkness vanish, There will my eyes have sight.
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FROM THE ANGLO-SAXON
THE GRAVE
For thee was a house built Ere thou wast born, For thee was a mould meant Ere thou of mother camest.
But it is not made ready, Nor its depth measured, Nor is it seen How long it shall be.
Now I bring thee Where thou shalt be;
Now I shall measure thee, And the mould afterwards.
Thy house is not Highly timbered, It is unhigh and low;When thou art therein, The heel-ways are low, The side-ways unhigh.
The roof is built Thy breast full nigh, So thou shalt in mould Dwell full cold, Dimly and dark.
Doorless is that house, And dark it is within;There thou art fast detained And Death hath the key.