| Margarete Münsterberg, ed., trans. A Harvest of German Verse. 1916. | | | | The Broken Ring | | By Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (1788–1857) |
| | | DOWN in a cool, green valley | |
| A millwheel goes all day, | |
| And there my love would dally— | |
| Now she is gone away. | |
| |
| She gave a ring for token | 5 |
| And pledged her faith as true: | |
| Her faith—alas!—is broken, | |
| The ring has burst in two. | |
| |
| I’d be a fiddler strolling, | |
| And wander far from home! | 10 |
| My songs forever trolling, | |
| From door to door I’d roam. | |
| |
| I’d be a rider, flying | |
| Into the bloody fight, | |
| By quiet campfires lying | 15 |
| Upon the field at night. | |
| |
| I hear the millwheel going: | |
| I know not what I will— | |
| I wish I might be dying, | |
| Then it would stand quite still. | 20 | | | |
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