Translation:The Young Man's Love/IX

by Ludwig Tieck

9: Despair

Resound, then, O you foaming waves,
And twine yourselves about me here!
Let misfortune bark at me loudly;
Incensed be the cruel sea!

I laugh at the storm and the wind,
I scorn the wrath of the flood;
O, let the rocks dash me to pieces!
For I have been abandoned by all hope.

I will not complain, though my vessel founder
And I perish in the watery depths.
The light has gone out of my eyes:
The star of my love has been quenched.

Roll downhill with thunder and lightning
And rage at me, O you storms!
Let rock be shattered upon rock!
I am forlorn.