C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Mignon’s Song

From ‘Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship’: Translation of Thomas Carlyle

SUCH let me seem, till such I be;

Take not my snow-white dress away!

Soon from this dusk of earth I flee,

Up to the glittering lands of day.

There first a little space I rest,

Then wake so glad, to scenes so kind;

In earthly robes no longer drest,

This band, this girdle left behind.

And those calm shining sons of morn,

They ask not who is maid or boy;

No robes, no garments there are worn,

Our body pure from sin’s alloy.

Through little life not much I toiled,

Yet anguish long this heart has wrung,

Untimely woe my blossoms spoiled:

Make me again forever young!