Streamlet and Stream

The streamlet's waves roll on in gleeful ways;
Their merry splash is as a silvery voice,
In such a tuneful current did rejoice

The mellow accents of my youthful days.

My soul was then a streamlet, pure and clear,
A mirror of the laughing sky above;
Sun, moon and star in this sky was my love;

The lively fish, my joyous heart, leaped here.

The streamlet has become a swollen stream
Its whispers, silver clear, are heard no more;
And o'er the storm is heard its mighty roar;

And overcast is now the heaven's bright gleam.
Bright sun, look not upon the stream just now;
Thou wilt not see in it thy shining face;

The struggles of the storm its waves displace;
Upheave its waters from the depths below.

What do the stains upon the waters mean —
The bloody stain, shown by the angry sea?
The wide world cast its anchor into thee;

My blood — blood of my heart — is now here seen!