I dreamed...

Mir träumt’...

Joseph von Eichendorff (1788-1857)

Mir träumt’...
Mir träumt’, ich ruhte wieder Vor meines Vaters Haus Und schaute fröhlich nieder Ins alte Tal hinaus, Die Luft mit lindem Spielen Ging durch das Frühlingslaub, Und Blütenflocken fielen Mir über Brust und Haupt. Als ich erwacht, da schimmert Der Mond vom Waldesrand, Im falben Scheine flimmert Um mich ein fremdes Land, Und wie ich ringsher sehe: Die Flocken waren Eis, Die Gegend war vom Schnee, Mein Haar vom Alter weiß.
I dreamed...
I dreamed again I rested Outside my father’s home And, joyful, down the valley Allowed my eyes to roam. The breeze in vernal bowers Sported with gentle jest And blossoms shed their petals About my head and breast. I saw the moon that shimmered From where the tall trees stand: In the pale light there glimmered, All round, a foreign land: And as I looked about me, The petals were ice-cold, All snowy was the country, And I was grey and old.

Translation: Copyright © Timothy Adès

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Hibernia nostra

Let Erin Remember

Thomas Moore (1779-1852)

My Latin
Let Erin Remember
Let Erin remember the days of old, Ere her faithless sons betray'd her; When Malachi wore the collar of gold, Which he won from her proud invader, When her kings, with standard of green unfurl'd, Led the Red-Branch Knights to danger! Ere the emerald gem of the western world Was set in the crown of a stranger. On Lough Neagh's bank as the fisherman strays, When the clear cold eve's declining, He sees the round towers of other days In the wave beneath him shining: Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime, Catch a glimpse of the days that are over; Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time, For the long-faded glories they cover.
Hibernia nostra
tempora lapsa diu memorentur, Hibernia nostra, queis te tradiderat nondum tua perfida proles. supremum regem signaverat aurea torques, invasore truci victorem in lite superbo: tempore quo viridi regum vexilla colore audendis equites rutilos duxere periclis, Hesperiae necdum Smaragditia gemma iacebat capta per externos, aliena inserta corona. est lacus insignis: ripa piscator in alta, solis ad occasum deerrans per frigus et umbram, viderit antiquas torres praestare rotundas, surgere fulgentes et aqua lucere profunda. sic etiam referent sublimia somnia menti grandia tempora, lapsorum simulacra dierum: vanescunt refugis aevis moribunda per undas, in queis iamdudum se pristina gloria condit.

Translation: Copyright © Timothy Adès

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