Margarete Münsterberg, ed., trans. A Harvest of German Verse. 1916.
By The RecognitionJohann Nepomuk Vogl (18021866)
A
Comes home again from a foreign land.
Who will know him first in the little town?
At the toll-bar leans a former mate:
Gay hours at the tavern they used to spend.
His face is so sunburnt that he is forgot.
And shakes off the dust from his tired feet.
“Be welcome, oh, loveliest maiden!” he cries.
His face is so sunburnt that he is forgot.
A tear gleams bright on his cheek so brown.
“God bless you!” he says, and nothing more.
“My son!”—And she sinks on the breast of her boy.
By a mother’s eye he is straightway known.