Friendship

I HAD a friend, and so we went together,
Merry and armed for every kind of weather;
Far was the road, but tired no man could find us,
We laughed at the hills, so soon they dropped behind us.

I had a friend — yet not long had we started
When we fell out, and in our anger parted:
The clouds dipped down; the mountains rose to screen him.
Oh, passers-by, long years I have not seen him!

Far is the road, and always it is lonely.
I am a man, and therefore march I . . . only
It lures me not — the goal for which we started;
I seek my friend — my friend from whom I parted.