Now Love once like a nightingale

Now Love once like a nightingale

in rosebush perched and sang;

with sweetest wonder flew the sound

along the woodland green.

And as it rang, there rose a scent

from ring of thousand buds,

and all the treetops rustled soft,

and softer blew the air;

The brooklets silenced, scarcely come

by splashing from the heights,

the fawns stood still as if in dream

and listened to the tone.

And bright and ever brighter flowed

the sunbeams down inside,

'round blossoms, wood and gorge it gushed

with golden red sunshine.

I walked along the path that day

and also heard that sound.

Alas! what ever since I've sung

was just its echo faint.