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Translated by C. T. Brooks
IN cloister Heisterbach a youthful monk | |
| Went sauntering through the garden’s farthest ground, | |
| Reading God’s Holy Word in silence, sunk | |
| In musings on eternity profound. | |
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| He reads, and hears the Apostle Peter say: | 5 |
| “One day is with the Lord a thousand years, | |
| A thousand years with him are but a day,”— | |
| But, in his maze of doubt, no clew appears. | |
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| He heeds not, lost in thought, the flight of time, | |
| And deeper in the wood is lost his track, | 10 |
| Until the bell, with holy vesper chime, | |
| To serious cloister-duties calls him back. | |
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| He reaches with swift steps the gate; the hand | |
| Of an unknown one answers now the bell; | |
| He starts—but sees the church all lighted stand, | 15 |
| And hears the friars the holy chorus swell. | |
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| Then, entering, to his seat he straightway goes, | |
| But strange to tell, he finds it occupied; | |
| He looks upon the monks in their long rows, | |
| He sees all strangers, there, on every side. | 20 |
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| The staring one is stared at all around, | |
| They ask his name, and why he there appears; | |
| He tells,—low murmurs through the chapel sound! | |
| “None such has lived here these three hundred years. | |
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| “The last who bore the name,” out spake the crowd, | 25 |
| “A doubter was, and disappeared one day; | |
| None, since, to take that name has been allowed”— | |
| He hears the word, and shudders with dismay. | |
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| He names the abbot now, and names the year: | |
| They call for the old cloister-book, and lo! | 30 |
| A mighty miracle of God is clear: | |
| ’T is he was lost three hundred years ago! | |
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| The terror palsies him,—his hair grows gray,— | |
| A deathly paleness settles on his face,— | |
| He sinks,—while breath enough is left to say: | 35 |
| “God is exalted over time and space! | |
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| “What he had hid, a miracle now clears; | |
| Think of my fate, believe, adore, obey! | |
| I know: a day is as a thousand years | |
| With God, a thousand years are as a day!” | 40 |
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