| Margarete Münsterberg, ed., trans. A Harvest of German Verse. 1916. | | | | Sonnet | | By August Graf von Platen (1796–1835) |
| | | OH, he whose pain means life, whose life means pain | |
| May feel again what I have felt before; | |
| Who has beheld his bliss above him soar | |
| And, when he sought it, fly away again; | |
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| Who in a labyrinth has tried in vain, | 5 |
| When he has lost his way, to find a door, | |
| Whom love has singled out for nothing more | |
| Than with despondency his soul to bane; | |
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| Who begs each lightning for a deadly stroke, | |
| Each stream to drown the heart that cannot heal | 10 |
| From all the cruel stabs by which it broke, | |
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| Who does begrudge the dead their beds like steel | |
| Where they are safe from love’s beguiling yoke— | |
| He knows me quite, and feels what I must feel. | | | | |
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