Sitting under white branches - Heinrich Heine

Sitting under white branches,
You can hear the wind blowing,
In blankets of mist shrouded,
See the silent clouds flowing.

See how the fields and forests
Are bare, extinguished, down below –
Winter round you and inside you,
And your heart frozen so.

Suddenly white flakes are falling
Over you, and crossly
You think it’s the tree sprinkling
A snow flurry across you.

But it’s not a snow flurry,
You soon see, with joyful dread,
It’s fragrant Spring blossom
Teasing, veiling you instead.

What sweet, terrible enchantment,
Winter’s changing into May,
Snow is changing into blossom,
Your heart’s in love again.

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Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (1797 – 1856) Germany
Translated by A. S. Kline
Source: Poetry in Translation