Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.
Hedwig’s Well, near Jauer
By Karl Theodor Körner (1791–1813)Translated by W. B. Chorley
H
How joy and sorrow bear, quick changes proving,
My softened heart to days of happy loving,
In which tears had not yet their poison given!
Who hath bound in sorrow my free Heaven?
Who dared to fetter thus my spirit’s roving,
The minstrel to war’s crimes by force removing?
Who hath my tree of peace thus foully riven?
What! hath not mine own hand the sword fast strained,
That to my German soil, by blood free rained,
Youth for a holy work, and life, he gained?
There speaks a God, in these waves’ murmurs dwelling,
“Strength must have way, the rocky heart o’er-swelling,
And from the deeps of death springs life pure welling.”