Littell's Living Age/Volume 136/Issue 1761/"Was will die einsame Thrane?"

by Heinrich Heine

"WAS WILL DIE EINSAME THRANE?"

What's this? A tear, one only?
It blurs and troubles my gaze.
In my eye it has hung and lingered
A relic of olden days.

It had many shining sisters,
But away they all have passed —
Passed with my torments and raptures
In night on the driving blast.

Away, too, have passed like a vapor
Those deep-blue starlets twain,
That smiled those raptures and torments
Into my heart and brain.

Like a breath my very love, too,
Has faded and flown, alas!
So now, old, lonely tear-drop,
'Tis time thou too shouldst pass!

Blackwood's MagazineHeine.