Eduard Mörike:  “SECLUSION”

Excerpt, “English Echoes of German Song.” Tr. by R. E. Wallis, J. D. Morell, and F. D’anvers. Edited by N. D’anvers.  With Twelve Engravings on Steel.

LONDON: Marcus Ward & Co. , 67 & 68 Chandon Street, Strand and Royal Ulster Works, Belfast.  1877

SECLUSION

O World! I pray thee let me be!

Cease with gifts of love alluring;

Leave this heart alone, enduring

Its delight—its misery!

Why I mourn I cannot say:

’Tis a strange, unspoken sorrow;–

Yet thro’ tears, o every morrow,

I behold the light of day.

Oft myself I hardly know;

When thro’ pain, a lightning pleasure

Flashes in o’erpowering measure

O’er my heart, a fiery glow.

O world!  I pray thee let me be!

Cease with gifts of love alluring;

Leave this heart alone, enduring

Its delight—its misery!

Eduard Mörike