The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries/Volume 5/Were I a Little Bird

by Johann Gottfried von Herder

Copyright Photographische Gesellschaft Moritz v. Schwind
Permission Berlin Photo. Co., New York

THE MAGIC HORN

LUDWIG ACHIM VON ARNIM AND CLEMENS BRENTANO

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THE BOY'S MAGIC HORN^[1] (1806)

WERE I A LITTLE BIRD

Were I a little bird,
And had two little wings,
I'd fly to thee;
But I must stay, because
That cannot be.

Though I be far from thee,
In sleep I dwell with thee,
Thy voice I hear.
But when I wake again,
Then all is drear.

Each nightly hour my heart
With thoughts of thee will start
When I'm alone;
For thou 'st a thousand times
Pledged me thine own.

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1. Selections translated by Margarete Münsterberg.