I would have made a bouquet
Richard Georg Strauss
I would have made a bouquet
but dark night arrived
and there was no little flower to be found,
or I would have brought it.
Then down my cheeks flowed
tears onto the clover -
I saw that one small flower had come up
now in the garden.
I wanted to pick it for you
deep in the dark clover,
but it began to speak:
"Ah, do not harm me!
"Be kind-hearted,
consider your own grief,
and do not let me
die in agony before my time!"
And if it had not spoken so,
in the garden all alone,
I would have plucked it for you,
but now that cannot be.
My sweetheart has not come,
I am so entirely alone.
In love dwells tribulation,
and it can be no different.