The Poems of Goethe, Translated in the Original Metres · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1782.* ----- JOHANNA SEBUS.
The waves roar around, but she turns not aside; She reaches the mound, and the neighbour straight, But for her and the children, alas, too late! THE DAM DISAPPEAR'D,--LIKE A SEA IT GROWLS, ROUND THE HILLOCK IN CIRCLING EDDIES IT HOWLS. The foaming abyss gapes wide, and whirls round, The women and children are borne to the ground; The horn of the goat by one is seized fast, But, ah, they all must perish at last! Fair Susan still stands-there, untouch'd by the wave; The youngest, the noblest, oh, who now will save? Fair Susan still stands there, as bright as a star, But, alas! all hope, all assistance is far. The foaming waters around her roar, To save her, no bark pushes off from the shore. Her gaze once again she lifts up to Heaven, Then gently away by the flood she is driven. NO DAM, NO PLAIN! TO MARK THE PLACE SOME STRAGGLING TREES ARE THE ONLY TRACE. The rushing water the wilderness covers, Yet Susan's image still o'er it hovers.-- The water sinks, the plains re-appear. Fair Susan's lamented with many a tear,-- May he who refuses her story to tell, Be neglected in life and in death as well!
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.