Wilhelm Müller.
The watchman, too, has his peculiar songs. One of these is very solemn and stately. A favorite translation of it begins:—
“Hark ye, neighbors, and hear me tell
Eight now strikes the loud church bell.”
An almost literal translation thus reproduces the grand themes which were made to remind the old guardians of the night in their ghostly vigils:—
THE WATCHMAN’S SONG.
Hark, while I sing! our village clock
The hour of eight, good sirs, has struck.
Eight souls alone from death were kept,
When God the earth with deluge swept:
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
Hark, while I sing! our village clock
The hour of nine, good sirs, has struck.
Nine lepers cleansed returned not;—
Be not thy blessings, man, forgot!
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
Hark, while I sing! our village clock
The hour of ten, good sirs, has struck.
Ten precepts show God’s holy will;—
Oh, may we prove obedient still!
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
Hark, while I sing! our village clock
The hour eleven, good sirs, has struck.
Eleven apostles remained true;—
May we be like that faithful few!
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!
Hark, while I sing! our village clock
The hour of twelve, good sirs, has struck.
Twelve is of Time the boundary;—
Man, think upon eternity!
Unless the Lord to guard us deign,
Man wakes and watches all in vain.
Lord! through thine all-prevailing might,
Do thou vouchsafe us a good night!