Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79. | | | | Appendix: Swabia | | The Swabian Maiden | | Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739–1791) |
| | Translated by A. Baskerville
I AM a Swabian maiden, | |
| My face is brown and tanned; | |
| ’T is true I am not gifted | |
| Like maids in Saxon land. | |
| |
| To read in books they ’re able, | 5 |
| They Gleim and Wieland praise; | |
| Sweet are as virgin honey | |
| Their manners and their ways. | |
| |
| The raillery they sting with | |
| Is like a pointed lance; | 10 |
| The wit that they discourse with | |
| Is taken from romance. | |
| |
| ’T is true that I possess not | |
| These cunning arts of life; | |
| Yet for an honest Swabian | 15 |
| Were I an honest wife. | |
| |
| For trifling, writing, reading | |
| All turn a maiden’s head: | |
| The man for me elected | |
| Will read for me instead. | 20 |
| |
| Fair youth, art thou from Swabia? | |
| Dost love thy fatherland? | |
| So come then, thou shalt have me; | |
| Behold! here is my hand! | | | | |
|
|
