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| LONG, long ago in Thüringen, | |
| Upon the Saale’s shore | |
| A shepherd loved a shepherdess: | |
| His love was triéd sore; | |
| For on the left bank he his flock | 5 |
| Did tend, while on the right | |
| Was hers,—but yet across the stream | |
| Their true love they did plight. | |
| |
| One day Count Rudolph riding by, | |
| It pleased him to command | 10 |
| His vassals here to build a bridge | |
| For his Thüringen land. | |
| Soon was the work begun, huge stones | |
| Were lowered in the stream, | |
| And the shepherd lad he danced to think | 15 |
| Fulfilled might be his dream. | |
| |
| Though in the building of the bridge | |
| Full many a year had flown, | |
| The love of that true, loving pair | |
| Had but intenser grown. | 20 |
| At length the road across the stream | |
| Was free; to yonder side | |
| The shepherd drove his little flock, | |
| There to embrace his bride. | |
| |
| The shepherdess was eager too | 25 |
| To meet her own true, love, | |
| So towards the new-built bridge her flock | |
| She with a full heart drove,— | |
| And on the bridge these lovers met, | |
| They vowed they ne’er would part,— | 30 |
| To seal their love then each one carved | |
| Upon the brink a heart. | |
| |
| Those lovers ’twain were soon relieved | |
| Of separation’s woe, | |
| And their two flocks from that day forth, | 35 |
| Together grazed below. | |
| E’en to this day those hearts remain | |
| Carved there,—do not forget | |
| In passing o’er the bridge to look— | |
| ’T is where those lovers met! | 40 |
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