Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.

Appendix: Swabia

The Swabian Maiden

By Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739–1791)

Translated by A. Baskerville

I AM a Swabian maiden,

My face is brown and tanned;

’T is true I am not gifted

Like maids in Saxon land.

To read in books they ’re able,

They Gleim and Wieland praise;

Sweet are as virgin honey

Their manners and their ways.

The raillery they sting with

Is like a pointed lance;

The wit that they discourse with

Is taken from romance.

’T is true that I possess not

These cunning arts of life;

Yet for an honest Swabian

Were I an honest wife.

For trifling, writing, reading

All turn a maiden’s head:

The man for me elected

Will read for me instead.

Fair youth, art thou from Swabia?

Dost love thy fatherland?

So come then, thou shalt have me;

Behold! here is my hand!