Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume II. Love. 1904. | | | | VII. Love’s Power | | The Landlady’s Daughter | | Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787–1862) |
| | From the German by John Sullivan Dwight
THREE students were travelling over the Rhine; | |
| They stopped when they came to the landlady’s sign; | |
| “Good landlady, have you good beer and wine? | |
| And where is that dear little daughter of thine?” | |
| |
| “My beer and wine are fresh and clear; | 5 |
| My daughter she lies on the cold death-bier!” | |
| And when to the chamber they made their way, | |
| There, dead, in the coal-black shrine, she lay. | |
| |
| The first he drew near, and the veil gently raised, | |
| And on her pale face he mournfully gazed: | 10 |
| “Ah! wert thou but living yet,” he said, | |
| “I ’d love thee from this time forth, fair maid!” | |
| |
| The second he slowly put back the shroud, | |
| And turned him away and wept aloud: | |
| “Ah! that thou liest in the cold death-bier! | 15 |
| Alas! I have loved thee for many a year!” | |
| |
| The third he once more uplifted the veil, | |
| And kissed her upon her mouth so pale: | |
| “Thee loved I always; I love still but thee; | |
| And thee will I love through eternity!” | 20 | | | |
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