The Poems of Goethe, Translated in the Original Metres · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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The violet's charms I prize indeed, So modest 'tis, and fair, And smells so sweet; yet more I need To ease my heavy care. The truth I'll whisper in thine ear: Upon these rocky heights so drear, I cannot find the loved one. The truest maiden 'neath the sky Roams near the stream below, And breathes forth many a gentle sigh, Till I from hence can go. And when she plucks a flow'ret blue, And says "Forget-me-not!"--I, too, Though far away, can feel it. Ay, distance only swells love's might, When fondly love a pair; Though prison'd in the dungeon's night, In life I linger there And when my heart is breaking nigh, "Forget-me-not!" is all I cry, And straightway life returneth.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.