Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.
The Right Word
By Adelheid von Stolterfoth (18001875)D
A golden treasure lies,
Knew’st thou the spell of magic
’T would at thy voice arise;
That magic word which holdeth,
With but a single sound,
The mighty torrent’s surges,
As if in fetters bound.
A sword all-conquering lies,
And he who can possess it
Against the world may rise.
One word must first be spoken,
The earth then opes, and lo!
From out her rocky chambers
The steel will brightly glow.
Deep in the shaft profound,
By dwarfs and gnomes well guarded,
There may a key be found;
It opens every portal,
Forever ’t is thy own,
Know’st thou ’mong words unnumbered
That one right word alone.
In vain so long, so long,
Till, word by word commencing,
It ended in a song!
But still as yet lie hidden
That treasure, key, and sword,
And what I sang so often
Was never the right word.