| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893. | | | | Translations | From the Anglo-Saxon.
The Soul’s Complaint against the Body |
| | | MUCH it behoveth | |
| Each one of mortals, | |
| That he his soul’s journey | |
| In himself ponder, | |
| How deep it may be. | 5 |
| When Death cometh, | |
| The bonds he breaketh | |
| By which were united | |
| The soul and the body. | |
| |
| Long it is thenceforth | 10 |
| Ere the soul taketh | |
| From God himself | |
| Its woe or its weal; | |
| As in the world erst, | |
| Even in its earth-vessel, | 15 |
| It wrought before. | |
| |
| The soul shall come | |
| Wailing with loud voice, | |
| After a sennight, | |
| The soul, to find | 20 |
| The body | |
| That it erst dwelt in;— | |
| Three hundred winters, | |
| Unless ere that worketh | |
| The Eternal Lord, | 25 |
| The Almighty God, | |
| The end of the world. | |
| |
| Crieth then, so care-worn, | |
| With cold utterance, | |
| And speaketh grimly, | 30 |
| The ghost to the dust: | |
| “Dry dust! thou dreary one! | |
| How little didst thou labor for me! | |
| In the foulness of earth | |
| Thou all wearest away | 35 |
| Like to the loam! | |
| Little didst thou think | |
| How thy soul’s journey | |
| Would be thereafter, | |
| When from the body | 40 |
| It should be led forth.” | | | | |
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