Best thing so far from my philosophy class...

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by Friedrich Hoederlin

Content the boatman turns to the river's calm
From distant isles, his harvest all gathered in;
So too would I go home now, had I
Reaped as much wealth as I've gathered sorrow.

Dear river-banks that reared me and taught me once,
Do you allay love's sufferings, promise me,
You forests of my childhood, should I
Come to you now, the same peace as ever?

Where by the stream, the cool, I saw wavelets play
And on the river's meadow watched boats glide past,
There soon I'll be; you long-loved mountains,
Once my protectors, and still the homeland's

Revered and certain frontiers, my mother's house,
Embrace of loving brother and sister there
I'll welcome soon, and you'll enclose me,
Healing my heart like a gentle bandage,

You ever loyal ones; but I know, I know,
This grief, the grief of love, will be slow to heal,
Of this no lullaby that mortals
Chant to give comfort will now relieve me.

For they who lend us heavenly light and fire,
The gods, with holy sorrow endow us too.
So be it, then. A son of Earth I
Seem; and was fashioned to love, to suffer.

More posts soon... including a RenFaire one!