Translation:The Joys

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Fluttering to the spring
The changing dragonfly
Pleased me long ago;
Soon dark and soon bright,
Like the chameleon,
Soon red, soon blue,
soon blue, soon green;
O that I could be near
to really see its colors!
 
It buzzes and hovers, resting never!
But hush, it sits in the meadows.
There I have it! There I have it!
And now I look at it closely
And see a sad dark blue -
 
So goes it you, dissectors of your joys!