To a portrait

Why do you look at me so kindly,

O portrait from a far-off place,

And why do you beckon to the banished man?

He would come only too gladly.

My entire youth returns

When I think of you,

As if I were again on the old path

Toward your house.

Like one who into the deep sea

Lets his gaze sink,

Neither seeing nor hearing if around him

Many thousands of treasures beckon;

Like one who toward the heavens

Gazes after a distant star,

Recognizing only one, naming only one,

And delighting in it:

So is all my yearning - all my courage

Gathered from you, o portrait;

And even now ignites with the same passion,

With the same joy.