Find me, oh comfort of this world,
oh endless night,
descended from the mountains softly,
the winds all in slumber now,
and across the water a seafarer,
solitary and tired from wandering.
sings his song in praise of God
for safe harbor this night.
–
The years have passed like clouds
and left me here alone,
the world turned from me now,
but you, inscrutable and true,
still find me, astray in rumination,
in the darkness among the pines.
–
Comfort of this world,
oh endless night,
the day has left me weary,
the wonder of the sea gone dark –
grant me pause from desire and need,
until the eternal blush of morning
shimmers through the darkness
among the pines.
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Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (1788 – 1857) was a German poet, novelist and playwright and one of the major writers of Romanticism. Der Einsiedler (The Hermit) was written for an orchestral work by Max Reger (here) and published as a poem in 1837.