THE BLIND MAN TO THE MAIDEN
Browning translated the following from a German poem in Wilhelmine von Hillern's novel The Hour Will Come at the request of Mrs. Clara Bell, the translator of the novel. It there appeared as the work of an anonymous friend, but was reprinted as Browning's in The Whitehall Review for March 1, 1883.
The blind man to the maiden said,
"O thou of hearts the truest,
Thy countenance is hid from me;
Let not my question anger thee!
Speak, though in words the fewest.
"Tell me, what kind of eyes are thine?
Dark eyes, or light ones rather?"
"My eyes are a decided brown—
So much, at least, by looking down,
From the brook's glass I gather."
"And is it red—thy little month?
That too the blind must care for."
"Ah! I would tell it soon to thee,
Only—none yet has told it me.
I cannot answer, therefore.
"But dost thou ask what heart I have—
There hesitate I never.
In thine own breast 't is borne, and so
'T is thine in weal, and thine in woe,
For life, for death—thine ever!"