''To Melancholy''

TO MELANCHOLY

Nikolaus Lenau

Through my life you are attendant
Melancholy, everywhere;
Be my star bright and ascendant,
Be it sinking, you are there.

Oft you lead to precipices
Where the eagle nests alone,
Where the stream down sheer abysses
Through the stunted pines is thrown.

Mem'ries of my dead awaking
Wake my tears to wildly flow;
Refuge on your bosom taking
Rests my face dark with its woe.

1832


-German title: An die Melancholie.

Illustration is Carl Gustav Carus, Nebelwolken in der Sächsischen Schweiz (Clouds of Fog in Saxon Switzerland), c.1828.