C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Ulrich von Liechtenstein (1200–1275/6)

(Thirteenth Century)

Translation of Edward Tompkins McLaughlin

SUMMER-HUED

Is the wood,

Heath and field; debonair

Now is seen

White, brown, green,

Blue, red, yellow, everywhere.

Everything

You see spring

Joyously, in full delight;

He whose pains

Dear love deigns

With her favor to requite—

Ah, happy wight!

Whosoe’er

Knows love’s care,

Free from care well may be;

Year by year

Brightness clear

Of the May shall he see.

Blithe and gay

All the play

Of glad love shall he fulfill;

Joyous living

Is in the giving

Of high love to whom she will,

Rich in joys still.

He’s a churl

Whom a girl

Lovingly shall embrace,

Who’ll not cry

“Blest am I”—

Let none such show his face.

This will cure you

(I assure you)

Of all sorrows, all alarms;

What alloy

In his joy

On whom white and pretty arms

Bestow their charms?