Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Margarete Münsterberg, ed., trans. A Harvest of German Verse. 1916.

By The Postillion

Nikolaus Lenau (Pseud. for Nikolaus Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau) (1802–1850)

LOVELY was the night in May,

Silver clouds were sailing

High above the spring array,

Through the heavens trailing.

Field and forest lay and slept,

Every path was lonely;

On the streets the watch was kept

By the moonshine only.

But the breeze was whispering,

Ever mildly sweeping,

Where the children of the spring

All lay calmly sleeping.

Gently crept the little brook;

Dreams of flowers blooming

Spread through every quiet nook,

Joyously perfuming.

My postillion was more rough,

Snapped his horse-whip loudly;

Over valley, hill and bluff

Blew his bugle proudly.

Hoofs of nimble horses four

Beat in sprightly measure,

Through the forest evermore

Trotting on with pleasure.

Wood and field were sweeping past,

Scarcely seen—then banished;

Like the flight of dreams, so fast

Peaceful hamlets vanished!

Girded round by joys of spring

Lay a graveyard yonder,

Wanderers admonishing

There to halt and ponder.

Gray against the mountainside,

Ancient walls were leaning;

Sadly stood the Crucified

High, in silent meaning.

On my rider’s spirits gay

Sadness fell, subduing,

And he made the horses stay;

Spoke, the Cross there viewing:

“Horse and wheel must stop right here,

Though it may be trying:

Yonder is my comrade dear

In the cool earth lying.

“’Twas a fellow good and true—

Sir, it is a pity!

No one like my comrade blew

On the horn a ditty.

“Here I always stop and blow

Songs dear to the other

Lying in the earth below—

Greetings from a brother!”

To the churchyard songs of cheer

He sent gaily swelling;

These should reach the brother’s ear

In his peaceful dwelling.

Far the bugle’s voice was borne,

From the mountains ringing,

And the dead postillion’s horn

Seemed to join the singing.

On we rode with slackened rein,

Through the landscape bounding;

Long the echo’s glad refrain

In my ears was sounding.