SUMMER DREAM.
FROM THE GERMAN MINNESINGERS.
’Twas summer; through the spring grass
The joyous flowers upsprang;
The birds in all their different tribes
Loud in the woodlands sang:
Then forth I went, and wandered far
The wide, green meadow o’er—
Where cool and clear the fountain play’d—
There strayed I in that hour.
Roaming on, the nightingale
Sang sweetly in my ear;
And by the greenwood’s shady side,
A dream came to me there.
Fast by the fountain, where bright flowers
Of sparkling hue we see;
Close sheltered from the summer heat,
That vision came to me.
All care was banished, and repose
Came o’er my wearied breast;
And kingdoms seemed to wait on me,
For I was with the blest.
Yet while it seemed as if away,
My spirit soared on high,
And in the boundless joys of heaven
Was rapp’d in ecstasy;
E’en then my body revel’d still
In earth’s festivity;
And surely never was a dream
So sweet as this to me.
Thus I dreamed on, and might have dwelt
Still on that rapturous dream,
When hark! a raven’s luckless note—
(Sooth ’twas a direful scream!)
Broke up the vision of delight.
Instant my joy was past;
O had a stone but met my hand,
That hour had been his last!
Translation of E. Taylor. Walther von der Vogelweide, about 1150.