English translations of Zwei Lieder für hohe und mittlere Stimme, opus 8

Somewhere in the wide ocean
[There is] a blessed Land, lost to the world,
Clouds pass over it silently
And the tide laps softly at its shore.

Ancient trees [flourish]1 there
And arch to form a thick grove,
Into which never penetrated a human word,
Nor a human gaze.

From crimson-red calyces there rises
A curiously sweet, languid breath,
The heavens incline themselves pensively
And, motionless, bushes and shrubs dream.

At the shore a boat is rocking,
The waves lap [gently]2 along its keel.
Whom does it fetch on its wide journey,
Whom does it carry to the blessed destination?

Ah, [that]3 the boat were to fetch me
[From out of]4 these anxious, anxious times,
That I might know how to find the way
To the isle of oblivion!

I carried my heart in my hand,
a wind blew over the land,
It was gone!

A grandmother came by. "Excuse me: 
do you have my heart?" The old woman, who was deaf,
just nodded.

A huntsman came by, growling:
"Such a heart, what do I care,
Keep asking!"

I asked up and down the highway,
no one gave me back my heart,
It was gone!

The farrier's child came last:
"Girl, didn't you see a heart in the wind?"
She laughed softly:

"If the wind doesn't have it, you haven't got one,
I pity you, lad, there, take mine,
but hold on to it tightly!”