| |
| MY way from the woods I was wending: | |
| There stood the old house still. | |
| My love, as of old, was bending | |
| Far over the window-sill. | |
| |
| Another man she has taken, | 5 |
| I was far in the battle’s din. | |
| How all has turned out!—Ah, forsaken, | |
| I wish a new war would begin! | |
| |
| Her child at the wayside was playing; | |
| Such likeness to her it bore! | 10 |
| I kissed its red lips while saying: | |
| “God bless thee forevermore!” | |
| |
| But she was frightened; I wandered. | |
| She lingered and gazed after me, | |
| And shook her fair locks and pondered, | 15 |
| And knew not who I might be. | |
| |
| The woods were murmuring gladly, | |
| I stood by a tree on the height; | |
| My hunter’s horn I blew sadly: | |
| It throbbed as in dreams through the night. | 20 |
| |
| At morn, when the songbirds dally, | |
| She wept and her heart was sore. | |
| But I was gone far from the valley; | |
| And now she will see me no more. | |
| |
