Autumn Song

A LITTLE bird flew through the dell,

And where the failing sunbeams fell

He warbled thus his wondrous lay.

"Adieu! adieu! I go away:

Far, far,

Must I voyage ere the twilight star!"

It pierced me through, the song he sang,
With many a sweet and bitter pang:
For wounding joy, delicious pain,
My bosom swelled and sank again.
Heart! heart!
Is it drunk with bliss or woe thou art?

Then, when I saw the drifted leaves,

I said, "Already Autumn grieves!

To sunnier skies the swallow hies:

So Love departs and Longing flies,

Far, far,

Where the Radiant and the Beauteous are."

But soon the Sun shone out anew,
And back the little flutterer flew:

i It was the Translator's custom to alter sometimes the titles selected by the
Authors themselves. Generally the present Editor does not interfere with this:
but in the present case the name prefixed by Mangan was evidently a mistake. In
the original it is simply " Herbstlied."

He saw my grief, he saw my tears,

And sang, " Love knows no Winter years!

No! no!

While it lives its breath is Summer's glow!"