FREE TRANSLATION
OF A
DRINKING SONG, BY GOETHE.
Sung by the Poet at a Meeting of Friends, to join which he and others had travelled a considerable distance.
1.
Celestial rapture seizes me,
Your inspiration merely;
It lifts me to the winking stars,
I seem to touch them nearly:
Yet would I rather stay below,
I can declare sincerely,
My song to sing, my glass to ring
With those I love so dearly.
2.
Then wonder not to see me here
To prop a cause so rightful:
Of all lov’d things on this lov’d earth
To me ’tis most delightful.
I vow’d I would among ye be
In scorn of fortune spiteful;
So here I came, and here I am,
To make the table quite full.
3.
When thus we should together meet,
Not quickly to be sunder’d,
I hoped at other Poets’ songs
My joy, too, should be thunder’d.
To join such brothers who would grudge
To travel miles a hundred!
So eager some this day to come,
Through very haste they blunder’d.
4.
Long life to him who guards our lives!
My doctrine’s not learnt newly:
We’ll first do honour to our King,
And drink to him most duly.
May he his foes without o’ercome,
Within quell all unruly;
And grant support of every sort,
As we shall serve him truly!