The Neckar

My heart awakened to life in your valleys,

  Your waves played around me.

      And all of the fair hills that know you,

        Wayfarer, are known to me as well.

On those peaks the winds from the sky

  Relieved me from pains of bondage,

      And silver-blue waves shone forth from the valley,

        Like the joy of life pouring out from a chalice.

Mountain springs hurried down to you,

  My heart with them, and you took us along

      To the quietly splendid Rhine, down

        To its cities and pleasant islands.

The world seems to me yet beautiful, and my eyes

  Search out with desire the charms of the earth,

      To golden Paktolos, to Smyrna's shores,

          To Ilion's woods.  How I'd like to

Go ashore at Sunium, and ask for the silent road

  To your pillars, Olympia!  Before age

      And storm winds bury you as well

        In the ruins of Athens' temples,

Along with the statues of its gods.  For you

  Have long stood alone, pride of a world

      That no longer exists.  And the beautiful

        Islands of Ionia, where sea air

Cools the hot shores and rushes through the woods

  Of laurel, when the sun warms the grapevines,

      And, oh, where golden autumn changes

        The sighs of the poor people into songs,

When the pomegranate ripens, when the orange trees

  Nod in a green night, and the gum trees drip

      Resin, and drums and cymbals resound

        To labyrinthine dances.

Perhaps someday my guardian deity will bring me

    To these islands, but even then my thoughts

      Would remain loyal to the Neckar

        With its lovely meadows and pastoral shores.