When I Was Still A Boy Poem by Daniel James Webster

(From the German of Friedrich Hölderlin)

When I was still a boy
A god often saved me
From the cries and canes of men.
Then I played safe and strong
With the orchard's blooms,
And Heaven's slightest winds
Played along with me.

And as you, oh Sun, give joy
To the hearts of plants
When they stretch out
To you their gentle hands,

So my own heart was made glad,
Father Helios, and like Endymion,
I was the loved one
Of your darling sister Moon.

I wish that all of you,
You true and friendly gods,
Could know how my soul
Did love you then.

True, I did not call you yet
By your rightful names, and you
Never called me as men call themselves,
As though they knew each other well.

Yet I knew you better
Than I've ever known men.
I knew the stillness found in space,
But men's words were beyond my reach.

I was raised by the music
Breathed by trees,
And learned to love
Among the flowered groves.

In the arms of the gods I grew tall.