Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79. | | | Turkey in Europe, and the Principalities
Moldavia | | Adieu to Moldavia | | From the Roumanian |
| | Translated by H. Stanley
COUNTRY dear and beautiful; | |
| O Moldavia, my beloved! | |
| Whoever departs and leaves thee | |
| Is struck with heavy grief, | |
| For, floating in soft visions | 5 |
| On thy breast, as in a paradise, | |
| Sweet is life with thee, | |
| Like a sweet day in May! | |
| |
| I leave thee, loved country, | |
| I take myself away from thy sky; | 10 |
| But with my soul in mourning, | |
| I weep bitterly, bitterly sigh. | |
| Sad now at parting, | |
| I am seized with shivering; | |
| And now every sweet illusion | 15 |
| For me is extinguished. | |
| |
| Who knows, who knows | |
| Whether, driven by the wind of fate, | |
| I shall return in joyousness | |
| To kiss thy soil! | 20 |
| If I shall see once again | |
| Thy echoing mountains, | |
| Which, with uplifted heads, | |
| Lose themselves proudly amid the clouds, | |
| |
| And thy forests of verdure, | 25 |
| Where flow and gently whisper | |
| The cool rills that give life, | |
| The songs that tell of regret. | |
| And thy sky that smiles | |
| To the soul of the Rouman, | 30 |
| And all that loves me, | |
| And all that I love! | |
| |
| Here is the hour of setting forth; | |
| Here is the very bitter hour! | |
| Joy and happiness, | 35 |
| I leave them on thy frontier, | |
| And my soul says to thee: | |
| “O Moldavia! that I mourn for, | |
| Adieu! remain happy, | |
| That I may again find thee happy.” | 40 | | | |
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