The Angler - Franz Grillparzer

Below lies the lake hushed and tranquil,
  And I sit here with idle hands,
And gaze at the frolicking fishes
  Which glide to and fro o'er the sands.

They come, and they go, and they tarry;
  But if I now venture a cast,
Of a sudden the playground is empty,
  As my basket remains to the last.

Mayhap if I stirred up the water,
  My angling might lure the shy prey.
But then I must also give over
  The sight of the fishes at play.

---

Franz Grillparzer (1791 - 1872) Austria

Translated by  William Guild Howard

Source: The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 6, Editor: Kuno Francke, 1914 [Project Gutenberg]