Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.

Berchtesgaden

The Edelweiss Gatherer

By Franz von Kobell (1803–1882)

Translated by Charles Boner

AY, autumn love I best, for then

I gather Edelweiss;

High up along the Watzmann’s sides,

And up above the ice.

In Berchtesgaden, too, by all

The flower is held so dear;

And if I bring my Edelweiss

To some great cavalier,

Or to the ladies of the court,

Each one the flower will wear;

For Edelweiss becomes them well,

And they are all so fair.

The gentlemen will sometimes ask

Where grew my snow-white store;

But when I to the Watzmann point,

They don’t ask any more.

And that ’s just why I love the flower;

’T is not won in a trice;

It courage needs, and hence ’t is called,

Not wrongly, Edelweiss.

And as, mid dangers climbing on,

I trust my God is near,

Gladly I pluck a posy, too,

For our sweet Ladye dear.

O, if the Watzmann do but send

No avalanche below,

Where stands my little garden, where

The hunter’s flower doth grow!

O Ladye dear! should snows perchance

Roll down with wild alarm,

Remember me, and prithee guard

My Edelweiss from harm!