Wayfarer’s Night Song

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, prose translation by Hyde Flippo

Wandrers Nachtlied II


Über allen Gipfeln

Ist Ruh,

In allen Wipfeln

Spürest du

Kaum einen Hauch;

Die Vögelein schweigen in Walde.

Warte nur, balde

Ruhest du auch.

Wayfarer’s Night Song


Over all the hilltops

is calm.

In all the treetops

you feel

hardly a breath of air.

The little birds fall silent in the woods.

Just wait . . . soon

you’ll also be at rest.

From Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, edited by Anthony and Ben Holden, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014, page 14. With thanks to Gary Hotham for sharing this with me.