少年维特的烦恼 英文版 The Sorrows of Young Werther
歌德 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
OCTOBER 12.
Ossian has superseded Homer in my heart. To what a world doesthe illustrious bard carry me! To wander over pathless wilds,surrounded by impetuous whirlwinds, where, by the feeble lightof the moon, we see the spirits of our ancestors; to hear fromthe mountain-tops, mid the roar of torrents, their plaintivesounds issuing from deep caverns, and the sorrowful lamentationsof a maiden who sighs and expires on the mossy tomb of the warriorby whom she was adored. I meet this bard with silver hair; hewanders in the valley; he seeks the footsteps of his fathers, and,alas! he finds only their tombs. Then, contemplating the palemoon, as she sinks beneath the waves of the rolling sea, the memoryof bygone days strikes the mind of the hero, days when approachingdanger invigorated the brave, and the moon shone upon his barkladen with spoils, and returning in triumph. When I read in hiscountenance deep sorrow, when I see his dying glory sink exhaustedinto the grave, as he inhales new and heart-thrilling delightfrom his approaching union with his beloved, and he casts a lookon the cold earth and the tall grass which is so soon to cover him,and then exclaims, "The traveller will come, -- he will come whohas seen my beauty, and he will ask, 'Where is the bard, where isthe illustrious son of Fingal?' He will walk over my tomb, andwill seek me in vain!" Then, O my friend, I could instantly, likea true and noble knight, draw my sword, and deliver my prince fromthe long and painful languor of a living death, and dismiss my ownsoul to follow the demigod whom my hand had set free!