Nature

May Song: How fair doth Nature

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749–1832

Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring (1853) · From Songs

Nature

How fair doth Nature
Appear again!
How bright the sunbeams!
How smiles the plain!
The flow'rs are bursting

From ev'ry bough,
And thousand voices
Each bush yields now.
And joy and gladness

Fill ev'ry breast!
Oh earth!--oh sunlight!
Oh rapture blest!
Oh love! oh loved one!

As golden bright,
As clouds of morning
On yonder height!
Thou blessest gladly

The smiling field,--
The world in fragrant
Vapour conceal'd.
Oh maiden, maiden,

How love I thee!
Thine eye, how gleams it!
How lov'st thou me!
The blithe lark loveth

Sweet song and air,
The morning flow'ret
Heav'n's incense fair,
As I now love thee

With fond desire,
For thou dost give me
Youth, joy, and fire,
For new-born dances

And minstrelsy.
Be ever happy,
As thou lov'st me!

MLA

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “May Song: How fair doth Nature.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/48/.

Chicago

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “May Song: How fair doth Nature.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/48/.

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