Margarete Münsterberg, ed., trans. A Harvest of German Verse. 1916.
By The Broken RingJoseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (17881857)
D
A millwheel goes all day,
And there my love would dally—
Now she is gone away.
And pledged her faith as true:
Her faith—alas!—is broken,
The ring has burst in two.
And wander far from home!
My songs forever trolling,
From door to door I’d roam.
Into the bloody fight,
By quiet campfires lying
Upon the field at night.
I know not what I will—
I wish I might be dying,
Then it would stand quite still.