English Translation :


The voice of the child

A child asleep! O still! In these features
You could swear that  Paradise has returned;
He smiles sweetly, as if listening to angelic choirs,
A heavenly joy playing about his mouth.

O be silent, world, with your blaring lies,
Do not disturb the truth of this sleep!
Let me hear the child speak in his dream
And retreat, oblivious, into innocence!

The child, unaware of my poignant listening,
Has blessed my heart with sombre sounds,
More than  the rustling of a tree in the silent forest

Some homesickness has come over me
Deeper than when it rains on the silent heath
Or when distant bells echo in the mountains.


(Translation : Karl-Heinz Holtheuer)