Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Sweden: Lapmark

Love-Song of a Laplander

By Ewald Christian von Kleist (1715–1759)

Translated by Charles Timothy Brooks

COME, Zama, come, nor longer scorn thy lover,

Queen of the fair;

O, come, or soon the snows of age shall cover

My wasting hair.

Vain is thy flight, for Love hath wings more fleeting

Than fleetest steed;

Nor driving snow nor hail-storm, fiercely beating,

Shall stay my speed.

I ’ll stem the stream where wintry waves roll deepest,

To come to thee;

I ’ll climb the crag where mountain walls rise steepest,

Thy form to see.

No gloomy glen within its depths shall hide thee,

Nor tangled shade;

Through brier and bog I ’ll follow close beside thee,

Coy Lapland maid.

And shouldst thou still, shy maiden, fly before me

Far o’er the sea,

I ’ll stand by Greenland’s breakers, hoarse and hoary,

And cry to thee.

The long, long night is near; my heart is yearning,

Sweet love, for thine.

My light, I see thee even now returning;—

What joy is mine!