The forest lake
Othmar Schoeck
How fair you are, you deep blue lake!
The mild west wind hesitates to breathe on you,
and only the pure snow of the water-lily
dares emerge from your chaste bosom.
Here no fisherman casts his fishnets,
no boat will ever glide through your waters!
Like a dithyramb of nature,
only the wood rustles in these lonely parts!
Wild roses spread for you their incense and
the slender firs their scent; they rear up about you
and like the pillars of a mighty cathedral
support the blue vault of the skies.
Once I knew a soul, serious and tranquil,
who locked herself away from the world with seven seals;
who, pure and profound, seemed to have been created, like you,
only to reflect Heaven in herself.