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Anonymous translation
“KNIGHT, to love thee like a sister | |
| Vows this heart to thee; | |
| Ask no other warmer feeling,— | |
| That were pain to me. | |
| Tranquil would I see thee coming, | 5 |
| Tranquil see thee go; | |
| What that starting tear would tell me | |
| I must never know.” | |
| |
| He with silent anguish listens, | |
| Though his heart-strings bleed; | 10 |
| Clasps her in his last embraces, | |
| Springs upon his steed, | |
| Summons every faithful vassal | |
| From his Alpine home, | |
| Binds the cross upon his bosom, | 15 |
| Seeks the Holy Tomb. | |
| |
| There full many a deed of glory | |
| Wrought the hero’s arm; | |
| Foremost still his plumage floated | |
| Where the foemen swarm; | 20 |
| Till the Moslem, terror-stricken, | |
| Quailed before his name. | |
| But the pang that wrings his bosom | |
| Lives at heart the same. | |
| |
| One long year he bears his sorrow, | 25 |
| But no more can bear; | |
| Rest he seeks, but, finding never, | |
| Leaves the army there; | |
| Sees a ship by Joppa’s haven, | |
| Which with swelling sail | 30 |
| Wafts him where his lady’s breathing | |
| Mingles with the gale. | |
| |
| At her father’s castle portal, | |
| Hark! his knock is heard; | |
| See! the gloomy gate uncloses | 35 |
| With the thunder-word: | |
| “She thou seek’st is veiled forever, | |
| Is the bride of Heaven; | |
| Yester eve the vows were plighted,— | |
| She to God is given.” | 40 |
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| Then his old ancestral castle | |
| He forever flees; | |
| Battle-steed and trusty weapon | |
| Nevermore he sees. | |
| From the Toggenburg descending, | 45 |
| Forth unknown he glides; | |
| For the frame once sheathed in iron | |
| Now the sackcloth hides. | |
| |
| There beside that hallowed region | |
| He hath built his bower, | 50 |
| Where from out the dusky lindens | |
| Looked the convent tower; | |
| Waiting from the morning’s glimmer | |
| Till the day was done, | |
| Tranquil hope in every feature, | 55 |
| Sat he there alone. | |
| |
| Gazing upward to the convent, | |
| Hour on hour he passed, | |
| Watching still his lady’s lattice, | |
| Till it oped at last,— | 60 |
| Till that form looked forth so lovely, | |
| Till the sweet face smiled | |
| Down into the lonesome valley, | |
| Peaceful, angel-mild. | |
| |
| Then he laid him down to slumber, | 65 |
| Cheered by peaceful dreams, | |
| Calmly waiting till the morning | |
| Showed again its beams. | |
| Thus for days he watched and waited, | |
| Thus for years he lay, | 70 |
| Happy if he saw the lattice | |
| Open day by day;— | |
| |
| If that form looked forth so lovely, | |
| If the sweet face smiled | |
| Down into the lonesome valley, | 75 |
| Peaceful, angel-mild. | |
| There a corse they found him sitting | |
| Once when day returned, | |
| Still his pale and placid features | |
| To the lattice turned. | 80 |
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