Category Archives: Moritz Graf von Strachwitz
Excerpt, “Translations From The German Poets.” Edward Stanhope Pearson. 1879.

MINE ANCIENT STEED
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My ancient steed,
My friend at need,
Why neigh’st thou with wistful glance?
Thy old sinews are wrung,
And my soul is unstrung,
Forth with me no more thou shalt prance.
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Thou shakest thou head,
Snort’st with nostril red,
To dreams, comrade mine, thou’st gone back;
Together we fly
O’er the hill top high,
Along the old well-loved track.
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Thou pawest before
The grating door,
Snowy foam-drops thy curb-bit fleck;
A rustling dress,
A white hand’s caress
As it pats thy sleek shining neck.
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The gravel flies,
Sleep seal thine eyes!
Away, into cerulean night!
O’er the dewy sward
In moonlight broad
We scud with might, with might.
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With loosened rein,
A dream in my brain,
On my lips the last kiss yet thrills;
Hoofs thud as they fall,
And quails that call,
And distant murmuring rills.
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The night-winds sweep,
The moon bathes deep
In the silver waves of the corn;
Red poppies gleam
And like sighs in a dream
Whispers the weird hawthorn.
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Just a backward gaze,
With eyes adaze
At the loved house slumbering fast;
My brave old lad,
How sad, how sad
That all our joy there is past!
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My comrade bold,
The dear path of old,
With snow is wreathen o’er;
Ruined lies the gate,
For my bride I’m too late,
And my heart so sore, so sore!
Excerpt, “The Poetry of Germany, Consisting from Upwards of Seventy of the Most Celebrated Poets.” Translated into English Verse by Alfred Baskerville. 1853.
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