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Translated by J. C. Mangan
BEAUTEOUS is it in the summer-night, and calm along the Rhine, | |
| And like molten silver shines the light that sleeps on wave and vine. | |
| But a stately figure standeth on the silent hill alone, | |
| Like the phantom of a monarch looking vainly for his throne! | |
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| Yes!—’t is he,—the unforgotten lord of this belovéd land! | 5 |
| ’T is the glorious Car’lus Magnus, with his gleamy sword in hand, | |
| And his crown enwreathed with myrtle, and his golden sceptre bright, | |
| And his rich imperial purple vesture floating on the night! | |
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| Since he dwelled among his people stormy centuries have rolled, | |
| Thrones and kingdoms have departed, and the world is waxing old: | 10 |
| Why leaveth he his house of rest? Why cometh he once more | |
| From his marble tomb to wander here by Langewinkel’s shore? | |
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| O, fear ye not the emperor!—he doth not leave his tomb | |
| As the herald of disaster to our land of blight and bloom; | |
| He cometh not with blight or ban on castle, field, or shrine, | 15 |
| But with overflowing blessings for the vineyards of the Rhine! | |
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| As a bridge across the river lie the moonbeams all the time, | |
| They shine from Langewinkel unto ancient Ingelheim; | |
| And along this Bridge of Moonbeams is the monarch seen to go, | |
| And from thence he pours his blessings on the royal flood below. | 20 |
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| He blesses all the vineyards, he blesses vale and plain, | |
| The lakes and glades and orchards, and fields of golden grain, | |
| The lofty castle-turrets and the lowly cottage-hearth; | |
| He blesses all, for over all he reigned of yore on earth; | |
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| Then to each and all so lovingly he waves a mute farewell, | 25 |
| And returns to slumber softly in his tomb at La Chapelle, | |
| Till the summer-time be come again, with sun and rain and dew, | |
| And the vineyards and the gardens woo him back to them anew. | |
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