Translated by H. W. Preston

 

FAR, far away across the sea,

  In the still hours when I sit dreaming

  Often and often I voyage in seeming;

And sad is the heart I bear with me,

Far, far away across the sea.

 

Yonder, toward the Dardanelles

  I follow the vessels disappearing,

  Slender masts to the sky uprearing;

Follow her whom I love so well,

Yonder toward the Dardanelles.

 

With the great clouds I go astray;

  These by the shepherd wind are driven

  Across the shining stars of heaven

In snowy flocks, and go their way,

And with the clouds I go astray.

 

I take the pinions of the swallow,

  For the fair weather ever yearning,

  And swiftly to the sun returning;

So swiftly I my darling follow

Upon the pinions of the swallow.

 

Homesickness hath my heart possessed,

  For now she treads an alien strand;

  And for that unknown fatherland

I long, as a bird for her nest.

Homesickness hath my heart possessed.

 

From wave to wave the salt sea over,

  Like a pale corpse I always seem

  On floating, in a deathlike dream,

Even to the feet of my sweet lover,

From wave to wave the salt sea over.

 

Now am I lying on the shore

  Till my love lifts me mutely weeping,

  And takes me in her tender keeping,

And lays her hand my still heart o’er,

And calls me from the dead once more.

 

I clasp her close and hold her long.

  “O, I have suffered sore,” I cry,

  “But now we will no longer die!”

Like drowning men’s my grasp is strong;

I clasp her close and hold her long.

 

Far, far away across the sea,

  In the still hours when I sit dreaming,

  Often and often I voyage in seeming;

And sad is the heart I bear with me,

Far, far away across the sea.