English translations of Drei Gesänge, opus 12

A little bird flew toward the field
And sang in the merry sunshine
With a sweet, wonderful sound:
Farewell now, I’m flying away,
Afar! Afar!
I’m leaving today!

I listened to his song out in the field,
I felt so well and yet so unsettled.
With a glad pain, with darkened joy
My wavering chest rapidly rose and sank,
Heart! Heart!
Are you breaking with pleasure or with pain?

Indeed, as I watched the leaves fall,
I thought: Ah, autumn has arrived!
The summer guest follows the swallow
Perhaps love and longing likewise flee,
Afar! Afar!
Quickly with the season!

Yet the sunshine came back,
And close behind it, the little bird,
He spied my tearful face
And sang: Love does not depart for winter,
No! No!
It is and remains the radiance of spring!

 The stars were shining with golden light
 as I stood alone by the window
 and listened to the distant sound
 of the posthorn in the still countryside.
 My heart became inflamed in my body,
 and I thought secretly to myself:
 Ah, if only I could journey with them
 into that magnificent summer night!
 
 Two young men were walking
 past on the slope of the mountain,
 and I heard them singing as they walked along
 in the quiet area:
 of vertiginous, rocky gullies 
 where the woods rustle so gently;
 of springs that rush out from the clefts
 into the night of the woods.
 
 They sang of marble statues,
 of gardens that grew wild upon stones
 in dusky groves;
 of palaces in the moonlight
 where maidens listen by the windows
 when the strum of lutes awakens them;
 and of fountains murmuring sleepily
 in the magnificent summer night.

  Out into the vastness of nature!
  Spring is coming soon.
  Through the broad expanses of snow
  To the spruce forest!
  Along plunging brooks
  On a dizzying path,
  Through swishing treetops
  To the cliffs, to the mountaintop
  Upward, onward!

Draw, thirsty wind, only draw
The falling tear from my eye,
Lay yourself upon my burning brow!

  Ah, after the mourning,
  The dull ache,
  How this shivering
  Blissfully frees my heart!
  Oh, restless urging,
  Do you wish to burst
  My bosom with might?
  I know you --
Love, love, unstoppably you come 
Over me once more, glorious one!