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Home  »  Complete Poetical Works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  »  From Eastern Sources. The Boy and the Brook

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.

Translations

From Eastern Sources. The Boy and the Brook

DOWN from yon distant mountain height

The brooklet flows through the village street;

A boy comes forth to wash his hands,

Washing, yes, washing, there he stands,

In the water cool and sweet.

Brook, from what mountain dost thou come?

O my brooklet cool and sweet!

I come from yon mountain high and cold

Where lieth the new snow on the old,

And melts in the summer heat.

Brook, to what river dost thou go?

O my brooklet cool and sweet!

I go to the river there below

Where in bunches the violets grow,

And sun and shadow meet.

Brook, to what garden dost thou go?

O my brooklet cool and sweet!

I go to the garden in the vale

Where all night long the nightingale

Her love-song doth repeat.

Brook, to what fountain dost thou go?

O my brooklet cool and sweet!

I go to the fountain at whose brink

The maid that loves thee comes to drink,

And whenever she looks therein,

I rise to meet her, and kiss her chin,

And my joy is then complete.