Farewell
Rings the final hour,
That forever from you keeps me!
If only I, myself, could keep
The hope that you’ll think of me!
But, gods! I know my tears are shed in vain,
Crushed by dire dejection,
My voice extinguished,
When I say, “I will never see you again!”
Beneath the willow’s shade,
I’ve hung my funeral lyre:
And now only the wind plucks from it a sighing song
A recitation of my heart’s complaint.
I know she will now quiver
In another lover’s embrace,
And the moan that will escape her,
Will be the faithful echo of my pain.
Oh, farewell, sweet country, farewell forever!
As quietly the moon marches on,
As her ethereal beams light up
The lambent blue of your towers.
In your breast I have placed,
Each precious thing that was ever mine,
Each object in sight, witness of my weeping,
Oh, country of mine, one very last time.
Oh, dearest friend, please suspend
This disconsolate wailing,
For an aching soul reveals
That still, there be one more suffering to suffer.
One tear alone would be enough
To gift you back, all of my love:
So do not condemn me to the torture
Of loving you, losing you, and having life yet left to live.
I will die in lost regions,
Where there are no meadows, no overgrown jungle,
Where pale roses shall never
Cover my forgotten grave.
I will die with my lips aflame
Pressing to me the image of my lost lover,
Whispering finally:
“Oh, God, I will never see her again.”