O, that I were with the best of maidens!

In pleasant glades of the mountain side;

With none to hear us but woodland songsters,

I’d kiss my own one with loving pride.

I was a season in foreign regions—

In sunny climes that are far away;

None with thy beauty my eye could find there;

And with the fairest I would not stay.

I will not strive with the tree that bends not,

Though on its branch-tops sweet apples grow;