作词 : Stefan George
作曲 : Cornelius Waldner
The sea resounds, on every coast the lustre,
The rising and the ebbing of the surf,
The flakes of shinning foam, the screaming birds!
O Children of the Sea whose early dreams
Divine the bliss of ever young horizons,
Want and abundance, action and repose,
The waters sing for you – your praises surge
Within the hollow shell the sea abandoned,
The shell a boy holds to his ear, and listens,
And gazes out into the salty wind.
For you the song, and now you live in us,
Unfathomed, cool-eyed, as if just forsaking
The lap of waters and yet unaware
How close the end! What alien shimmer masks
Your head with smiles of smooth malignant oceans?
No god can help you steer an ever course.
The wave that bore you washes you like flotsam
And in the west still glistens with your hair.
On azure shores the gentle midday murmur
Of sun-enveloped seas evokes your face
In palpable and luring loveliness.
You stand among the throngs with sombre eyes,
Your cheek suffused with summer, and are equal
To those we name with awe who, bridled only
By strength within them, lived erect, and light,
And shinning as the body of the Foamborn.
But you the sea has cast from south to north,
You, the amazing blend of fire and ice,
Of sudden zest for strife and flaccid pauses.
Why cling to us, you ending of this age,
Choose us along with other for your whims?
You feel the drive of wish or wave, but soon
Your soul will have exhausted every pale,
And Moan and stray, too frail for love or faith.
The ring is closed. The sea-god circles cliff
And island with his song, he flings a spell
And links the course of destinies with waters
That press and thrust and throng, or plead and glide,
Are almost quelled but gather for return…
Now, scourged beneath the longed-for storm, the tide
Engulfs what moulders, and the current snatches
You too! And yet your souls remain and sound
Within the hollow shell the sea abandoned,
The shell a boy holds to his ear, and listens,
And gazes out into the salty wind.