New love, new life
Karl Friedrich Zelter
Heart, my heart, what does this mean?
What is besieging you so?
What a strange new life!
I do not know you any longer.
Gone is all that you loved,
gone is what troubled you,
gone is your industry and peace,
alas! how did you come to this?
Does youthful bloom shackle you,
this lovely figure
whose gaze is full of fidelity and goodness,
with endless power?
If I rush to escape her,
to take heart and flee her,
I am led in a moment,
alas, back to her.
And with this magic thread
that cannot be ripped,
the dear, mischievous maiden
holds me fast against my will;
in her magic circle I must
live now in her way.
The change, alas - how great!
Love, Love, let me free!