Infancy - Jens Baggesen

The»e was a time, and I recal it well,
When my whole frame was but an ell in height;
Oh! when I think of that, my warm tears swell,
And therefore in the memory I delight.

I sported in my mother's kind embraces,
And climb'd my grandsire's venerable knee;
Unknown were care, and rage, and sorrow's  traces;
To me the world was blest as blest could be.

I mark'd no frowns the world's smooth surface wrinkle,
Its mighty space seem'd little to my eye;
I saw the stars, like sparks, at distance twinkle,
And wish'd myself a bird, to soar so high,

I saw the moon behind the hills retiring,
And thought the while — Oh! would I were but there!
Then could mine eye examine without tiring
That radiant thing, how large, how round, how fair.

Wond'ring I saw the sun of God depart
To slumber in the golden lap of even,
And from the east again in beauty dart
To bathe in crimson all the field of heaven

I thought on him, the Father all-bestowing,
Who made me, and that beauteous orb on high,
And all the little stars, that nightly glowing
Deck'd like a row of pearls the azure sky.

To him with infant piety I faulter'd
The prayer my pious mother taught to me:
"Oh! gracious God! be it my aim unalter'd,
Still to be wise and good, and follow thee!"

For her I pray'd, and for my father too,
My sister dear, and the community,
The king, whom yet by name alone I knew,
And mendicant that sighing totter'd by.

Those days were matchless sweet — but they are perish'd,
And life is thorny now, and dim, and flat;
Yet rests their memory — deeply — fondly cherish'd;
God! in thy mercy take not — take not that.

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Jens Immanuel Baggesen (1764 – 1826) Denmark
Translated by William Sidney Walker
Source: Poems, from the Danish selected by Andreas Andersen Feldborg and translated by William Sidney Walker, Thomas Dobson, 1815