MAXIM Joy requires thee not to chase it, Searching, roaming everywhere: Learn to see and to embrace it In thy path-'tis ever there. GOETHE.-Erinnerung. THE FROGS. A SPACIOUS pond was frozen over; The froglings, under their icy cover, Were fain to abandon croaking and springing, But promised themselves, in a kind of trance, That if ever again they got the chance, Like nightingales all would soon be singing. With pride they paddled to land in a trice, GOETHE.-Die Frösche. THE GRAVE. THE grave with gloom is clouded; Beyond its margin lone There lies, in blackness shrouded, Another land, unknown. Not all the sweet birds' singing Within the depth can sound; The flowers that Grief is flinging Touch but the mossy mound. There kneels the bride forsaken, And wrings her hands in vain; There orphan cries awaken No answering voice again. And yet 'tis there that mortals For perfect peace must come, And, save through its dark portals, They cannot enter home. The heart, forlorn and lonely, And tossed with tempests sore, Reaches the haven only When it can beat no more. SALIS.-Das Grab. O LOVE WHILE LOVE IS NIGH AT HAND! O LOVE while love is nigh at hand! O love while love and life are brave! And see that, fostered, in thy breast Love ever finds a fitting throne So long as any other heart Beats back in answer to thine own. And he who shows thee all his soul, O give him love for love again! |