The Poems of Goethe Part 87

Thy marble image seems a type of thee;

Like it, no sign of life thou giv'st to me; Compared with thee, the stone appears to glow.

Behind his s.h.i.+eld in ambush lurks the foe,

The friend's brow all-unruffled we should see.

I seek thee, but thou seek'st away to flee; Fix'd as this sculptured figure, learn to grow!

Tell me, to which should I the preference pay?

Must I from both with coldness meet alone?

The one is lifeless, thou with life art blest.

In short, no longer to throw words away,

I'll fondy kiss and kiss and kiss this stone,

Till thou dost tear me hence with envious breast.

1807.

----- GROWTH.

O'ER field and plain, in childhood's artless days,

Thou sprang'st with me, on many a spring-morn fair.

"For such a daughter, with what pleasing care, Would I, as father, happy dwellings raise!"

And when thou on the world didst cast thy gaze,

Thy joy was then in household toils to share.

"Why did I trust her, why she trust me e'er?

For such a sister, how I Heaven should praise!"

Nothing can now the beauteous growth r.e.t.a.r.d;

Love's glowing flame within my breast is fann'd.

Shall I embrace her form, my grief to end?

Thee as a queen must I, alas, regard:

So high above me placed thou seem'st to stand;

Before a pa.s.sing look I meekly bend.

1807-8.

----- FOOD IN TRAVEL.

IF to her eyes' bright l.u.s.tre I were blind,

No longer would they serve my life to gild.

The will of destiny must be fulfilid,-- This knowing, I withdrew with sadden'd mind.

No further happiness I now could find:

The former longings of my heart were still'd;

I sought her looks alone, whereon to build My joy in life,--all else was left behind.

Wine's genial glow, the festal banquet gay,

Ease, sleep, and friends, all wonted pleasures glad

I spurn'd, till little there remain'd to prove.

Now calmly through the world I wend my way:

That which I crave may everywhere be had,

With me I bring the one thing needful--love.

1807-8.

----- DEPARTURE.

WITH many a thousand kiss not yet content,

At length with One kiss I was forced to go;

After that bitter parting's depth of woe, I deem'd the sh.o.r.e from which my steps I bent,

Its hills, streams, dwellings, mountains, as I went,

A pledge of joy, till daylight ceased to glow;

Then on my sight did blissful visions grow In the dim-lighted, distant firmament,

And when at length the sea confined my gaze,

My ardent longing fill'd my heart once more;

What I had lost, unwillingly I sought.

Then Heaven appear'd to shed its kindly rays: