Vom Truge [English translation]

Why am I not the ground

that receives my sleeper

to her sleep in the beautiful night,

the ground that guards love?

Why am I not the breeze

stroking over her belly,

under her feet the field

and the whisper in her mouth?

Why am I not the waves

that she receives in her lap?

Why am I not the gleaming necklace

she hangs around her neck?

Why am I not the mirror

that shows her beautiful face,

that tilts her eyes against

this seal of her grandeur?

Why am I not the lute

over which her fingers whir?

The trusted voice that stirs my heart

sings tenderly to me.

At only a pluck of this beautiful one

would take me immediately away

and all my strings would sound

with each other in unison.

Why am I not the spindel?

I could always stay by her

and in a sweet spiral

her hand would spin me.

Why am I not the distaff

that she wets with her mouth?

I would never be sere and dry;

I would be happy and healthy.

Why can I not take her heart

in the flight of a dream?

Why can I not transcend deceit

into the truth?

But Earthly ambition

puffed out my chest too proudly,

since I want to become everything,

everything that pleases her.

since I want to become everything,

everything that pleases her.