Littell's Living Age/Volume 136/Issue 1763/"Wie kannst du ruhig schlafen"

by Heinrich Heine

"WIE KANNST DU RUHIG SCHLAFEN?"

Sleep, and in peace? How canst thou?
⁠And know I am still alive?
Back comes the old wrath, and straightway
⁠My yoke in sunder I rive.

Dost know the old-world legend,
⁠How once a youth that was dead
At midnight drew his loved one
⁠Down to his churchyard bed?

Oh trust me, thou beauteous wonder,
⁠Of all sweet the sweetest far,
I live, yes, live, and am stronger
⁠Than legions of dead men are!

⁠Blackwood's MagazineHeine.