Jump to content

Lorelei's Song

From Wikisource
Lorelei's Song (2015)
by Heinrich Heine, translated by George J. Dance

Published in Doggerel and other doggerel (2015).

Heinrich Heine4406124Lorelei's Song2015George J. Dance


If there's reason, I can't recall it,
Why I feel sick and tense.
A fable demands I tell it,
An old tale without sense.

The heavens are cool and dark now
And quiet flows the Rhine;
The peak of the Rock is a spark now
Of summer eveningshine.

In glory amid the last light
There sits a maid most fair.
Her garment and jewels shine bright
As she combs her golden hair

With a golden comb; and she's singing
The most marvellous song to me.
Even piercing my drums could not bring
Escape from that melody.

In my skiff I am a captive
Of each melodious note,
Caring nothing for the rapids
That wait to sink my boat.

The waves will be devouring,
Too soon, both skiff and I;
And I will die still hearing
The song of Lorelei.

 This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.

Original:

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

Translation:

This work is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, which allows free use, distribution, and creation of derivatives, so long as the license is unchanged and clearly noted, and the original author is attributed.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse