Harken, what my tidings fair shall be.
All that you were wont to hear
Is a very trifle: now ask me.
But give me my reward!
Then, if that be good,
I shall tell what you will hear with joyful mood.
Take care, and honours fit accord!
To German ladies I shall say
Such happy tidings as will please them well,
And bring the world beneath their sway;
For no great thanks my tale I’ll tell.
Ah, what should I ask?
They’re too great, I find.
So I am but modest, pray that they be kind:
Gracious welcome be their task.
In many countries I have fared,
I have seen the best with eager eye.
Woe betide me if I dared
Force my heart that it should ever try
Other lands to love
For their foreign ways.
Should I lie, what profit were false praise?
German manners all above!
From the Elbe to the Rhine,
Back unto Hungarian ground,
There, I wot, the noblest shine
That upon the world are found.
If looks and bearings fair
My eyes can judge aright,
Any woman here surpasses in my sight
High-born ladies fine elsewhere!
German men are nobly bred,
Angels are the women of the land.
He who chides them is misled.
Other truth I cannot understand.
He who on his way
Seeketh virtue, loving chaste,
Come into our land, for there is joy to waste.
May I live there long, I pray!
Walter von der Vogelweide (1170 – 1228) Germany
Translated by Margarete Münsterberg
Source: A Harvest of German Verse, edited and translated by Margarete Münsterberg, D. Appleton and Co., 1916
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