My baby has a father and a mother,
Rich little baby!
Fatherless, motherless, I know another
Forlorn as may be:
Poor little baby!

What -- write my name!
How vain the feeble trust,
To be remembered
When the hand is dust --
Grieve rather that the talents freely given
Were used for earth -- not treasured up for Heaven!

What -- write my name!
How vain the feeble trust,
To be remembered
When the hand is dust --
Grieve rather that the talents freely given
Were used for earth -- not treasured up for Heaven!

My arm for a pillow,
I really like myself
under the hazy moon.


Translated by Robert Hass

I have a heartfelt aversion for crime,--a twofold aversion,
Since 'tis the reason why man prates about virtue so much.
"What! thou hatest, then, virtue?"--I would that by all it were practised,
So that, God willing, no man ever need speak of it more.

Those love cannot leave alone
Love those, cannot leave alone
Cannot love, leave those alone
Leave those, cannot love alone
Those cannot leave love alone

Mußt dir oft den Kopf zerbrechen,
Daß das Wort vom Sinne satt!
Leichter ist es, schön zu sprechen,
Wenn man nichts zu sagen hat.

Mußt dir oft den Kopf zerbrechen,
Daß das Wort vom Sinne satt !
Leichter ist es, schön zu sprechen,
Wenn man nicht zu sagen hat.

How sweet it is to sit and read the tales
Of mighty poets and to hear the while
Sweet music, which when the attention fails
Fills the dim pause--

Unnoted as the setting of a star
He passed; and sect and party scarcely knew
When from their midst a sage and seer withdrew
To fitter audience, where the great dead are
In God's republic of the heart and mind,
Leaving no purer, nobler soul behind.