Annette Von Droste-Hulshoff Poems

The year at its turn,
the whirring thread unrolls.
One hour more, the last today,
and what was living time is scrolls
...

As the trembling banished man
Stands at his homeland border
And backwards turns his gaze,
...

How dreadful it is to go over the moor
When it is teeming with will o' the wisps
And mists are whirling like phantoms
...

Sweet peace, sweet delight of grass,
Of its aroma breathed about me:
Deep draught, deep, deeply drunk draught.
...

Farewell! There can be no other way.
Let your fluttering sails be hoist.
Left alone and castle bound I stay
...

Belovèd, when my spirit has departed,
Lose no tears for me;
For, where I linger, there is peace,
And I am bathed in lasting day.
...

I leant upon the balcony rail
And there, for your mild light, I waited.
High above me like crystals of clouded ice
...

Oh night, you canopy of embroidered gold!
Oh moon, you lamp of silver!
You, who shroud the world around
...

I stand aloft on the balcony,
The starlings around me crying,
And let like maenad my hair stream free
...