The Poems of Goethe, Translated in the Original Metres · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
THE TYPES.
LIST, and in memory bear These six fond loving pair. Love, when aroused, kept true Rustan and Rad! Strangers approach from far Joseph and Suleika; Love, void of hope, is in Ferhad and Schirin. Born for each other are Medschnun and Lily; Loving, though old and grey, Dschemil saw Boteinah. Love's sweet caprice anon, Brown maid + and Solomon! If thou dost mark them well, Stronger thy love will swell. 1817.* (+ Brown maid is the Queen of Sheba.) ----- ONE PAIR MORE. LOVE is indeed a glorious prize! What fairer guerdon meets our eyes?-- Though neither wealth nor power are thine, A very hero thou dost shine. As of the prophet, they will tell, Wamik and Asia's tale as well.-- They'll tell not of them,--they'll but give Their names, which now are all that live. The deeds they did, the toils they proved No mortal knows! But that they loved This know we. Here's the story true Of Wamik and of Asia too. 1827.* ----- LOVE's torments sought a place of rest, Where all might drear and lonely be; They found ere long my desert breast, And nestled in its vacancy.
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