Love

Song: Translated from the German

by Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792–1822

Translated by Percy Bysshe Shelley · From Complete Poetical Works, Oxford ed. Hutchinson (1914)

Love

Ah! grasp the dire dagger and couch the fell spear,
If vengeance and death to thy bosom be dear,
The dastard shall perish, death’s torment shall prove,
For fate and revenge are decreed from above.

Ah! where is the hero, whose nerves strung by youth,
Will defend the firm cause of justice and truth;
With insatiate desire whose bosom shall swell,
To give up the oppressor to judgement and Hell—

For him shall the fair one twine chaplets of bays,
To him shall each warrior give merited praise,
And triumphant returned from the clangour of arms,
He shall find his reward in his loved maiden’s charms.

In ecstatic confusion the warrior shall sip,
The kisses that glow on his love’s dewy lip,
And mutual, eternal, embraces shall prove,
The rewards of the brave are the transports of love.

✦ ✦ ✦

Translated by Shelley from the German.

MLA

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Song: Translated from the German.” Translated by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/shelley/259/.

Chicago

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Song: Translated from the German.” Translated by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/shelley/259/.

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