Longing
WHAT pulls at my heart so?
What tells me to roam?
What drags me and lures me
From chamber and home?
How round the cliffs[199]gather
The clouds high in air!
I fain would go thither,
I fain would be there!
The sociable flight
Of the ravens comes back;
I mingle amongst them,
And follow their track.
Round wall and round mountain
Together we fly;
She tarries[200]below there，
I after her spy.
Then onward she wanders,
My flight I wing soon
To the wood fill’d with bushes,
A bird of sweet tune.
She tarries and hearkens,
And smiling,thinks she：
“How sweetly he’s singing!
He’s singing to me!”
The heights are illum’d
By the fast setting sun;
The pensive[201]fair maiden
Looks thoughtfully on;
She roams[202]by the streamlet，
O’er meadows she goes,
And darker and darker
The pathway fast grows.
I rise on a sudden,
A glimmering star;
“What glitters above me,
So near and so far?”
And when thou with wonder
Hast gazed on the light,
I fall down before thee,
Entranced by thy sight!
1803.