To The Fates

Grant me just one summer, powerful ones,

  And just one autumn for ripe songs,

    That my heart, filled with that sweet

      Music, may more willingly die within me.

The soul, denied its divine heritage in life,

  Won't find rest down in Hades either.

    But if what is holy to me, the poem

      That rests in my heart, succeeds —

Then welcome, silent world of shadows!

  I'll be content, even though it's not my own lyre

      That leads me downwards.  Once I'll have

        Lived like the gods, and more isn't necessary.