Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/261

261

THE FAREWELL.

follow the thoughts which flew beyond the sea, and
swept over mountain and valley. His longing found
expression in a song which came like a deep sigh from
his heart :

   Float away, oh mournful measure !
      Greet once more my native strand;
    Dear, and beautiful, and sacred,
      Greet my German Fatherland.
  
    Greet those verdant hills and valleys
      Where rings clear the hunter's note ;
    Where the blue and shining waters
      Play around the fisher's boat.

    Where the avalanches thunder
      Down the Staubach's silvery mist;
    Oh I to dimb those snow-capped mountains.
      Breathe the air that them hath kissed.

    Where, as decked with bridal chaplets,
      Glowing in the evening red,
    Jungfrau lifts her snowy forehead —
      Oh, once more her slopes to tread !

    Or wander on thy banks, O Saale,
      Where the pine its arched roof rears
    O'er the monuments of heroes,
      Crumbled by the storms, of years.

    Everywhere, along the Danube,
      On the Elbe and on the Rhine,
    Is my Fatherland the worthy
      Birthplace of the German line.

    Rich alike in oaks and vineyards.
      Rough with rocks, and soft with flowers,
    Everywhere you trace the features
      With which all her sons she dowers.