Little Song About Rest

In love's arms one can rest well,

but also deep in the earth;

whether it will be there or here

that I will find rest,

that's what my spirit inquires and muses and thinks

and beseeches Providence, which will give me rest.

In love's arms one can rest well,

but it beckons me, ah! in vain.

With you, Elisa, I would surely find

rest for my whole life.

You are forbidden to me by cruel human opinion,

and in my time of blossoming I wither away.

Deep in the earth one can rest well,

so quiet and undisturbed;

here the heart is so full of cares,

there it is troubled by nothing.

One sleeps so gently, sleeps so sweetly

away into Paradise.

Ah, where indeed shall I rest yet

from every kind of trouble?

In love's arms one can rest well,

indeed also in the depths of the earth!

Soon I must rest, wherever it may be,

that is all the same for a weary man.