August Graf von Platen-Hallermünde (1796–1835)

Anonymous Translation
With a Volume of Poems

IS he not also Beauty’s sceptre bearing,

Who holds in Truth’s domain the kingly right?

Thou seëst in the Highest both unite,

Like long-lost melodies together pairing.

Thou wilt not scorn the dainty, motley band,

With clang of foreign music hither faring,

A little gift for thee from Morning-land,—

Thou wilt discern the beauty they are wearing.

Among the flowers, forsooth, of distant valleys,

I hover like the butterfly, that clings

To summer-sweets and with a trifle dallies:—

But thou dost dip thy holy, honeyed wings,

Beyond the margin of the world’s flower-chalice,

Deep, deep into the mystery of things.