Farewell Poem by Annette Von Droste-Hulshoff

Farewell! There can be no other way.
Let your fluttering sails be hoist.
Left alone and castle bound I stay
In this desolate, ghostly house.

Farewell! And take with you my heart
And my final ray of sun;
May it depart, right now depart
For sometime soon must it be gone.

Leave me with my lakeside swell
Rocking with the waves long line
All alone with my magic spell,
The alpine spirit and that self of mine.

Abandoned but not lonely,
Shattered but not crushed
As long as the light so holy
On me with loving eyes is thrust.

So long as fresh woods for me are left
Where rustling leaves give forth their song,
From every cliff and every cleft
The listening elf befriends me long.

So long as I may stretch my arm
In freedom to the heavens above,
And every vulture in wild alarm
Awakes in me the muse I love.

Translation by: David Paley