My heart awakened to life in your valleys, Your waves played around me. And all of the fair hills that know you, Wayfarer, are known to me as well.
On those peaks the winds from the sky Relieved me from pains of bondage, And silver-blue waves shone forth from the valley, Like the joy of life pouring out from a chalice.
Mountain springs hurried down to you, My heart with them, and you took us along To the quietly splendid Rhine, down To its cities and pleasant islands.
The world seems to me yet beautiful, and my eyes Search out with desire the charms of the earth, To golden Paktolos, to Smyrna's shores, To Ilion's woods. How I'd like
Go ashore at Sunium, and ask for the silent road To your pillars,
Olympia! Before age And storm winds bury you as well In the ruins of Athens' temples,
Along with the statues of its gods. For you Have long stood alone, pride of a world That no longer exists. And the beautiful Islands of Ionia, where sea
Cools the hot shores and rushes through the woods Of laurel, when the sun warms the grapevines, And, oh, where golden autumn changes The sighs of the poor people into songs,
When the pomegranate ripens, when the orange trees Nod in a green night, and the gum trees drip Resin, and drums and cymbals resound To labyrinthine dances.
Perhaps someday my guardian deity will bring me To these islands, but even then my thoughts Would remain loyal to the Neckar With its lovely meadows and pastoral shores.
