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Come to this shore!
Come to the land
where in glowing love's fond embrace
blessed balm shall soothe your longings!
Come to this shore!
Come to the land!
Beloved, say:
where dwell your thoughts?
Too long! Too long!
Oh, that I might wake now!
Say: what troubles you?
In a dream it was
as if I heard what long has been unfamiliar to my ear,
as if I heard the joyous peal of bells.
Ah, say: how long is it since I heard it?
What possesses you? Where strays your mind?
I cannot measure the time that I have tarried here.
Days, months exist no more for me
for no more do I see the sunlight,
no more the friendly stars of heaven.
I see no more the fields
which, freshly green, herald a new summer.
No more do I hear the nightingale,
harbinger of spring.
Shall I never hear or see them again?
Ah, what do I hear? What foolish complaints!
Are you so soon weary of the sweet wonders
which my love has lavished on you?
Or can it be you so regret
being a god?
Have you so soon forgotten how once you suffered
while now you live here lapped in delights?
My singer, rise!
Take up your harp!
Extol love,
which you lauded with such rapture
that you won for yourself the goddess of love!
Extol love, for its highest prize is yours!