Those drops, and lo! upon green stems blue violets fragrant grow!
Thus in that grove the little Alfs amuse themselves secure;
They teach the peasant’s cock to crow loud at his master’s door,
To rouse him from his slumber, and make him hie with speed
To earn with plough and harrow for wife and children bread.
At night they show the lover, who through the forest roves,
The way that he should wander, to find the maid he loves:
And when he meets her, when her hand he presses tenderly,
The Alfs their hands together bind with links of flowers, which she,
Now kind become, ne’er seeks to loose.