MOONLIGHT.
FROM THE GERMAN.
Darker than the day,
Clearer than the night,
Shines the mellow moonlight,
From the rocky heights,
Shapes in shimmer clad,
Mistily are mounting.
Pearls of silver dew,
Soft distilling, drop
On the silent meadows.
Night of sweetest song,
With the gloomy woods,
Philomela mingleth.
Far in ether wide
Yawns the dread abyss
Of deep worlds uncounted.
Neither eye nor ear,
Seeking, findeth here
The end of mazy thinking.
Evermore the wheel
Of unmeasured Time
Turns round all existence;
And it bears away
Swift, how swift! the prey
Of fleet-flitting mortals.
Where soft breezes blow,
Where thou see’st the row
Of smooth-shining beeches;
Driven from the flood
Of the thronging Time,
Lina’s hut receives me.
Brighter than aloft,
In night’s shimmering star,
Peace with her is shining.
And the vale so sweet,
And the sweet moonlight,
Where she dwells, is sweeter.
Anonymous Translation. Carl v. Knebel, 1744–1834.