Ebba Simone’s Reviews > Songs of Love and Grief: A Bilingual Anthology in the Verse Forms of the Originals > Status Update

Ach du meine Güte!

(Clarisse)

"An deine blauen Augen
Gedenk ich allerwärts;
Ein Meer von blauen Gedanken
Ergießt sich über mein Herz"

"They have tormented and vexed me
Into a frantic state,
The ones with their loving affection,
The others with their hate.
They dosed my drink with venom,
They poisoned the bread I ate,
The ones with their loving affection,
The others with their hate.
But she who was my vexation
And sorrow, all others above,
She never showed me hatred,
And never showed me love."

"A single fir stands lonesome
On barren northernly height.
He drowses; frost and snowstorm
Shroud him in swathes of white.
He dreams about a palm - she,
In the orient far, alone,
Sorrowing stands and silent
At a blazing scarp of stone."

"In those days Germany was full of verse. Everyone wrote it, from school children to government ministers, even the king of Bavaria, and if possible, published it in almanacs, calendars, journals, and newspapers."