Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79. | | | | Berchtesgaden | | The Edelweiss Gatherer | | Franz von Kobell (1803–1882) |
| | Translated by Charles Boner
AY, autumn love I best, for then | |
| I gather Edelweiss; | |
| High up along the Watzmann’s sides, | |
| And up above the ice. | |
| |
| In Berchtesgaden, too, by all | 5 |
| The flower is held so dear; | |
| And if I bring my Edelweiss | |
| To some great cavalier, | |
| |
| Or to the ladies of the court, | |
| Each one the flower will wear; | 10 |
| For Edelweiss becomes them well, | |
| And they are all so fair. | |
| |
| The gentlemen will sometimes ask | |
| Where grew my snow-white store; | |
| But when I to the Watzmann point, | 15 |
| They don’t ask any more. | |
| |
| And that ’s just why I love the flower; | |
| ’T is not won in a trice; | |
| It courage needs, and hence ’t is called, | |
| Not wrongly, Edelweiss. | 20 |
| |
| And as, mid dangers climbing on, | |
| I trust my God is near, | |
| Gladly I pluck a posy, too, | |
| For our sweet Ladye dear. | |
| |
| O, if the Watzmann do but send | 25 |
| No avalanche below, | |
| Where stands my little garden, where | |
| The hunter’s flower doth grow! | |
| |
| O Ladye dear! should snows perchance | |
| Roll down with wild alarm, | 30 |
| Remember me, and prithee guard | |
| My Edelweiss from harm! | | | | |
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