Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Switzerland and Austria: Vol. XVI. 1876–79.

Switzerland: Alps, The

The Mountain Boy

By Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787–1862)

Anonymous translation

THE SHEPHERD of the Alps am I,

The castles far beneath me lie;

Here first the ruddy sunlight gleams,

Here linger last the parting beams.

The mountain boy am I!

Here is the river’s fountain-head,

I drink it from its stony bed;

As forth it leaps with joyous shout,

I seize it ere it gushes out.

The mountain boy am I!

The mountain is my own domain:

It calls its storms from sea and plain;

From north to south they howl afar;

My voice is heard amid their war.

The mountain boy am I!

And when the tocsin sounds alarms,

And mountain bale-fires call to arms,

Then I descend, I join my king,

My sword I wave, my lay I sing.

The mountain boy am I!

The lightnings far beneath me lie;

High stand I here in clear blue sky;

I know them, and to them I call;

In quiet leave my father’s hall.

The mountain boy am I!