The Queen's Court Manuscript with Other Ancient Bohemian Poems/The Lark

For other English-language translations of this work, see The Lark (Queen's Court Manuscript).

THE LARK.

 

All in a lordly garden ground
⁠Is weeding hemp a maid,
A Lark addresses her and asks,
⁠Why sad, and why afraid?

‘O how can I then joyful be,
⁠Thou pretty little lark?
My lover they have ta’en from me,
⁠And shut in dungeon dark.

‘O had I, had I but a pen,
⁠A letter I would write,
And thou my messenger should’st be,
⁠And with it take thy flight.

‘But I’ve no paper, I’ve no pen,
⁠A letter to essay,
So greet and tell my love in song,
⁠That here I pine away.’

 

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