Bohemian Poems, Ancient and Modern/The Lark

For other English-language translations of this work, see The Lark (Queen's Court Manuscript).

THE LARK.

 

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ALL in a lordly garden ground
Is weeding hemp a maid,
A Lark addresses her and asks,
Why sad, and why afraid?

‘O how can I then joyful be,
Thou pretty little lark?
My lover they have ta’en from me,
And shut in dungeon dark.

O had I, had I but a pen,
A letter I would write,
And thou my messenger shouldst be,
And with it take thy flight.

But I’ve no paper, I’ve no pen,
To write a letter now,
So greet my love with song, and say,
That here I pine with woe.’

 

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