Matthias Claudius: 'Der Mond ist aufgegangen'

The moon is fully risen

The moon is fully risen,

the golden starlets glisten

in heavens clear and bright;

through hushed woods dark is prising,

from meadows there is rising

a wondrous cloud of mist so light.

How calm and still the world is

and in dusk’s mantle furled is

so lovely and so near;

it lies like some quiet room where 

day’s gloom you leave behind there

and sleeping cause to disappear.

You see the moon there gleaming?

But half can you see beaming,

though it’s both round and fair.

So too what’s partly hiding

we feel deserves deriding,

since our eyes tell us it’s not there.

We humans overweening

are sinners poor and preening

who knowledge fail to store;

we weave our fabrications

employ arts’ deviations

yet from our goal withdraw the more.

God, grant us Thy salvation,

no shifting-sand foundation

or vainness be our bane;

may we be simple-hearted

and while from Earth not parted

a child’s glad piety retain.

And lastly without grieving

when we this world are leaving

willst Thou kind death afford;

and when Thou us hast taken

may we in heaven waken,

Thou who art Master and Our Lord.

So in God’s name, you Brothers,

lie down ere darkness covers –

cold breath of evening’s due.

God, spare Thy just chastising 

so we may sleep till rising

and our sick neighbour do so too.

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