Page:Masterpieces of German literature volume 18.djvu/399

 HERMANN HESSE (1877–)

TALK IN A GONDOLA

HAT I dream, you ask? That yesterday

We had died, we two. In fair array —

Clad in white, our hair with flowers wound,

In our gondola we're seaward bound;

Bells from yonder campanile peal,

But the water gurgles round the keel.

Drowns the distant toll that's gently failing.

Onward, onward to the sea we're sailing.

Where the ships with masts that tower high,

Sombre shadows, rest against the sky.

Where on fishing-boats there gleam the moist

Deep-stained red and yellow sails they hoist.

Where the roaring mighty waves are swelling,

Where the sailors lurid tales are telling.

Through a gate of bluest water, deeply

Downward now our boat is gliding steeply.

In the depths we find a wid'ning range

Filled with many trees of coral strange.

Where in lustrous shells that hidden gleam

Pale gigantic pearls with beauty beam.

Silvery fishes pass us, glist'ning, shy.

Leaving tinted trails as they flit by,

In whose furrows other fish instead

Gleam with slender tails of golden red.

At the bottom, fathoms deep, we dream;

As if bells were calling it will seem.

Now and then, as if a wind that fanned

Sang us songs we cannot understand.

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