What means this tear all-lonely
That troubles now my gaze?
Of olden times the offspring
Still in mine eye it stays.
It had its shining sisters,
Who all have faded from sight,
With all my joys and sorrows,
Yea, faded in storm and night.
Like clouds have also fleeted
The stars so blue and mild,
Which into my yearning bosom
Those joys and sorrows once smiled.
Ah! even my love’s devotion
Like idle breath did decay;
Thou old, old tear all-lonely,
Do thou, too, pass away!
30.
The pallid autumnal half-moon
Looks down from the clouds on high;
The parsonage, silent and lonely,
By the side of the churchyard doth lie.
The mother is reading her Bible,
The son on the light turns his eyes,
All-sleepy, the elder daughter
Doth stretch, while the younger thus cries:
“Good heavens, how dreadfully tedious
“The days are! I’m quite in despair!
“’Tis only when there’s a burial
“One sees aught of life, I declare!
The mother then says, midst her reading:
“You’re mistaken, four only have died
“Since the time when they buried your father
“By the gate of the churchyard outside.”
The elder daughter says gaping:
“I’ll starve no longer with you;
“I’ll go to the Count to-morrow,
“He’s rich and he loves me too.”