Since I bade farewell this morning

To the good monks of [ St. Blasien],

Lonely was the road and dreary.

Scattered here and there, a peasant,

Through the snow-storm running swiftly,

Hardly did my greeting notice.

Then a pair of coal-black ravens,

Who with hoarse discordant croakings,

O'er a dead mole fiercely quarrelled;

For the past two hours, however,