‘Shame, shame,’ ye cry, ‘on the strumpet bold!’
Yet I’m an honest wife.
To whom I’m wedded, ye ne’er shall be told,
Yet he’s both loving and fair;
He wears on his neck a chain of gold,
And a hat of straw doth he wear.
If scorn ’tis vain to seek to repel,
On me let the scorn be thrown.
I know him well, and he knows me well,
And to God, too, all is known.
Sir Parson and Sir Bailiff, again,
I pray you, leave me in peace!
My child it is, my child ’twill remain,
So let your questionings cease!
Ha, I am the lord of earth! The noble,O’er whom my sway extendeth, love I.Oh, grant me, God in Heaven, that I may ne’erDispense with loftiness and love!
For indecision brings its own delays,And days are lost lamenting o’er lost days.Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute!What you can do, or think you can, begin it!Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;Begin it, and the work will be completed
Whilst AEolus loosensOur anguish-fraught bond.The zephyrs are sighing,Alert is the sailor.Quick! nimbly be plying!The billows are riven,The distance approaches;I see land beyond!
Hath he just ceased, though cold it be,In yonder holy spot to pray?The brook appears to hem his path,Would he barefooted o’er it go?Why curse his orisons in wrath,Across those heights beclad with snow?Alas! his warm bed he bath left,Where he had look’d for bliss, I ween;And if his cloak too, had been reft,How fearful…
Up the trellis’d vine on high!May ye swell, twin-berries tender,Juicier far,–and with more splendourRipen, and more speedily!O’er ye broods the sun at evenAs he sinks to rest, and heavenSoftly breathes into your earAll its fertilising fullness,While the moon’s refreshing coolness,Magic-laden, hovers near;And, alas! ye’re watered everBy a stream of tears that rillFrom mine eyes–tears ceasing…
If from the market-place we view it;Thus sees the ignoramus through it.No wonder that he deems it tame,–And all his life ’twill be the same.But let us now inside repair,And greet the holy Chapel there!At once the whole seems clear and bright,Each ornament is bathed in light,And fraught with meaning to the sight.God’s children! thus…
