Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/79

Thus rashly, Leonora strove
To doubt the truth of heavenly love.
She wept, and beat her breast;
She pray'd for death, until the moon
With all the stars in silence shone,
And sooth'd the world to rest.

When hark! without what sudden sound!
She hears a trampling o'er the ground,
Some horseman must be near!
He stops, he rings. Hark! as the noise
Dies soft away, a well-known voice
Thus greets her list'ning ear.^[1]

"Wake, Leonora;—dost thou sleep,
Or thoughtless laugh, or constant weep,
Is William welcome home?"
"Dear William, you!—return'd, and well!
I've wak'd and wept—but why, ah! tell,
So late—at night you come?"^[2]

"At midnight only dare we roam,
For thee from Prague, though late, I come."
"For me!—stay here and rest;
The wild winds whistle o'er the waste,
Ah, dearest William! why such haste?
First warm thee in my breast."

"Let the winds whistle o'er the waste,
My duty bids me be in haste;
Quick, mount upon my steed:
Let the winds whistle far and wide,
Ere morn, two hundred leagues we'll ride,
To reach our marriage bed."^[3]

"What, William! for a bridal room,
Travel to-night so far from home?"
"Leonora, 'tis decreed.
Look round thee, love, the moon shines clear,
The dead ride swiftly; never fear,
We'll reach our marriage bed."^[4]

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1. Second line, What trampling hears she on the ground; manuscript corrects what of first line to a.
2. First two lines,
   "Awake! awake! arise my dear.
   Can Leonora sleep? I'm here.
   
   
   Fourth line, thou; last lines,
   "What joy? But whence, and why, ah! tell
   At night—so late— you come?"
   
   
   Manuscript correction of first lines,
   "Rise, Leonora, dost thou sleep,
   Or laughs my love, or doth she weep;
   
   
   with further variant of the second line, Or wake, or doth she laugh or weep.
3. Fifth line, an hundred.
4. Second line, this night.