The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries/Volume 5/Cavalryman's Morning Song

by Wilhelm Hauff

WILHELM HAUFF

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CAVALRYMAN'S MORNING SONG^[1] (1826)

RIMSON morn,
Shalt thou light me o'er Death's bourn?
Soon will ring the trumpet's call;
Then may I be marked to fall,
I and many a comrade brave!
Scarce enjoyed,
Pleasure drops into the void.
Yesterday on champing stallion ;
Picked today for Death's battalion ;
Couched tomorrow in the grave!

Ah! how soon
Fleeth grace and beauty's noon!
Hast thou pride in cheeks aglow,
Whereon cream and carmine flow?
Ah! the loveliest rose turns sere!
Therefore still
I respond to God's high will.
To the last stern fight I'll fit me;
If to Death I must submit me,
Dies a dauntless cavalier!

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1. Translator : Herman Montagu Donner.