THE HAPPIEST LAND. From the waves was heard a wail, that rent Thy murky sky! From Denmark, thunders Tordenskiol', Path of the Dane to fame and might! Receive thy friend, who, scorning flight, And amid pleasures and alarms, THE HAPPIEST LAND. FRAGMENT OF A MODERN BALLAD. 63. FROM THE GERMAN. THERE sat one day in quiet, The landlord's daughter filled their cups, Then sat they all so calm and still, * Nils Juel was a celebrated Danish Admiral, and Peder Wessel, a Vice-Admiral, who for his great prowess received the popular title of Tordenskiold, or Thunder-shield. In childhood he was & tailor's apprentice, and rose to his high rank before the age of twenty-eight, when he was killed in a duel. But, when the maid departed, A Swabian raised his hand, And cried, all hot and flushed with wine, "Long live the Swabian land! "The greatest kingdom upon earth “Ha!” cried a Saxon, laughing,And dashed his beard with wine; "I had rather live in Lapland, Than that Swabian land of thine! "The goodliest land on all this earth, It is the Saxon land! There have I as many maidens As fingers on this hand!” "Hold your tongues! both Swabian and Saxon!a A bold Bohemian cries; "If there's a heaven upon this earth, In Bohemia it lies. "There the tailor blows the flute, And the cobbler blows the horn, And the miner blows the bugle, And then the landlord's daughter THE DEAD. 65 THE WAVE. FROM THE GERMAN OF TIEDGE. 66 WHITHER, thou turbid wave "I am the Wave of Life, VOL. I. THE DEAD. FROM THE GERMAN OF STOCKMANN. How they so softly rest, How they so softly rest, All in their silent graves, Deep to corruption Slowly down-sinking! And they no longer weep, Softly o'ershadowed, Until the Angel Calls them, they slumber! 5 THE BIRD AND THE SHIP. FROM THE GERMAN OF MÜLLER. "THE rivers rush into the sea, "The clouds are passing far and high, "I greet thee, bonny boat! Whither, or whence, With thy fluttering golden band?"- "I greet thee, little bird! To the wide sea I haste from the narrow land. "Full and swollen is every sail; I have trusted all to the sounding gale, “And wilt thou, little bird, go with us? Thou mayest stand on the mainmast tall, For full to sinking is my house With merry companions all." "I need not and seek not company, For the mainmast tall too heavy am I, High over the sails, high over the mast, When thy merry companions are still, at last, WHITHER. "Who neither may rest, nor listen may, I dart away, in the bright blue day, "Thus do I sing my weary song, And this same song, my whole life long, WHITHER? FROM THE GERMAN OF MULLER. I HEARD a brooklet gushing イ I know not what came o'er me, Downward, and ever farther, Is this the way I was going? What do I say of a murmur? 67 |