Taylor, Edgar [Editor]; Austin, Sarah [Editor]: Lays of the minnesingers or German troubadours of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: Illustr. by specimens of the contemporary lyric poetry of Provence and other parts of Europe ; With histor. and crit. notes, and engravings from the ms. of the minnesingers in the king's library at Paris, and from other sources (London, 1825)

160 MINNESINGERS.

Uf der linden obene

Da sane ein kleines vogelin;

Vor dem walde wart es lut,

Do huop sich aber das herze min,

An eine stat da es e da was;

Ic sach da rosebluomen stan,

Die manent mich der gedanken vil

Die ich hin zeiner frouwen han.

There sat upon the linden-tree

A bird, and sang its strain ;
So sweet it sang, that, as I heard,

My heart went back again.
It went to one remember'd spot,

It saw the rose-trees grow,
And thought again the thoughts of love

There cherish'd long ago.

A thousand years to me it seems

Since by my fair I sate,
Yet thus to have been a stranger long

Was not my choice hut fate:
Since then I have not seen the flowers,

Nor heard the birds' sweet song;
My joys have all too briefly past,

My griefs been all too long.