| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | Fresco-Sonnets to Christian S——. (I.) | | By Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) |
| | Translated by Matilda Dickson
A HAUNTING tale that will not be denied | |
| Besets me,—in that tale a tender lay, | |
| Amid whose music, blooming like the may | |
| A wondrous lovely little maid doth glide; | |
| Within the maid a small heart doth abide, | 5 |
| But in that heart no sparks of love can glow; | |
| Within that loveless nature cold as snow, | |
| Dwell only arrogance and frozen pride. | |
| —Hear’st thou how rings that story thro’ my brain, | |
| And how that song its sad refrain is blending, | 10 |
| And how the maiden titters, soft and low? | |
| I only fear my heart will burst in twain; | |
| And oh! that were, methinks, a fearful ending | |
| Should I go mad with all this weight of woe. | | | | |
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