Das Angenehme dieser Welt hab’ ich genossen,
Die Jugendstunden sind, wie lang! wie lang!
verflossen,
April und Mai und Julius sind ferne,
Ich bin nichts mehr, ich lebe nicht mehr gerne!
World’s
pleasures I enjoyed from first to last,
My
youthful days, long gone! long gone! are past,
April
May and July lie far away,
I’m
nothing more, have no more wish to stay!
Revised translation 05.02.18
this is the fifth translation posted (so far!). it is a good example of head to heart, of how you sometimes have to alter the rigid scaffolding of a poem to move from the skilful to the truthful.
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