Margarete Münsterberg, ed., trans. A Harvest of German Verse. 1916.
By Free ArtLudwig Uhland (17871862)
T
In the German poets’ wood!
When all boughs with music ring,
Life is sweet and pleasure good.
To a small and haughty band;
Scattered are the seeds of song
All about the German land.
From the heart’s confining cage!
Let thy love like murmurs be
And like thunder-storms thy rage!
Joy of youth should make thee sing.
Nightingales pour forth their lays
In the blooming months of spring!
What the hour imparts to thee,
Stray leaves to the breezes cast!
Youth will seize them gratefully.
Necromancy, alchemy!
Formulas shall bind no more,
And our art is poesy.
Spirits we revere alone;
Though we honour masters rare,
Art is free—it is our own!
Temples drear where ancients trod,—
Nay, in oaks on woody hill
Lives and moves the German God.