Translation:The Young Man's Love/I
1: Encouragement
No one has ever regretted
Mounting his horse
In the freshness of his youth
To fly through the world.
Mountains and meadows,
The lonely forest,
Maidens and ladies
Splendidly attired,
Golden jewellery:
Everything delights him with its fair form.
Forms flee
Wondrously past him;
Rapturously glow
The desires of his youthful intoxicated soul.
Fame scatters roses
Quickly in his path,
Love and caresses,
Laurels and roses
Carry him upwards higher and higher.
Around him joys;
Enemies, succumbing,
Envy the hero.
Then he chooses modestly
The maiden who pleases him more than all others.
And Mountains and fields
And lonely forests
He leaves behind him.
His parents in tears,
Ah, after all their yearning -
They are all reunited in loving happiness.
Years have passed away;
He tells his son
In an intimate moment,
And shows him his wounds,
The wages of valour.
And so in his old age he remains a youth,
A shaft of light in the dusk.