English translations of Vier Lieder, opus 105

When through bush and branch
I strike out for the narrow climb,
it becomes so wide for me - so free -
that my heart nearly bursts in two.
Around this forest house then
the walls recede
and a leafy chamber arches 
high above me, a roof of dizzying height.
Nearly every leaf is interwoven
into a wing for me,
so that my heart 
yearns deeply for infinity.

Yet when in wide spaces
high on the mountain edge,
over the valley I stand
and gaze toward it.
Oh, how restricted, how narrow,
it becomes for me in the oppressive air;
Around my head so heavy
the clouds nod down;
Threatening to crash down,
the sunset surrounds me;
and in a little chamber
does my heart long to be.

Look at how the little eye's
Childlike heaven - 
So weighed down with sleep - 
Is closing so easily! - 
  There will come a day when it closes
  As the earth calls you:
  Inside is heaven,
  Outside is pleasure!

Look at how red with sleeping
Your glowing cheek has become:
Roses from Eden
Have breathed on them:
   Your cheeks are roses,
   Your eyes are heaven,
   The morning is bright,
   The day is heavenly!

Look at how your locks of hair
With their golden waves
Are cooling your temple
With their glowing edges.
   Your golden hair is beautiful,
   The garland on it is more beautiful:
   Dream of laurels
   Until they blossom for you.

Lovely little mouth,
Angels are hovering around you:
Inside is innocence,
Inside is love;
   Look after them, little child,
   Look after them faithfully:
   The lips are roses,
   The lips are aglow.

Look at how an angel
Is folding your little hands;
There will come a time when they are similarly folded,
When you go to your rest;
   Dreams are beautiful
   When people pray:
   And waking up
   Is rewarded with dreams.

You dear walls, lovely and cosy,
that coolly surround me 
and gaze down on me with a silver gleam
when above the moon is full!
You once saw me here so sad,
my head in my weary hands, 
when I saw only into myself alone
and no one understood me.

Now a new dawn has broken:
the time of sadness is past.
And many follow with me this path
through sacred Life.
Fate will never steal them
from my faithful regard,
for I carry them deep in my soul
where Fate does not have power.

You walls suppose me as gloomy as before,
because this is a quiet joy.
When you shine from moonlight
my heart swells.
At every window, I imagine
a friendly head, lowered,
that soon gazes upward toward the sky
and thinks about me as well.

 The window-pane freezes, the wind is rough,
 the night sky is clear and blue.
 I sit in my little room
 and gaze into clear blue.

 Something is lacking, I feel all too well;
 I miss my love, my true life's blood,
 and if I gaze at the stars
 my eyes must overflow with tears.

 My love, where do you tarry so far away,
 my beautiful star, delight of my eyes?
 You know that I love and need you;
 again tears threaten.

 I have suffered for so many days
 and for me no song will come,
 because one cannot force a song
 to murmur forth freely like the west wind.

 How softly does this glow suffuse me now!
 Look - it is a song already!
 Even though my lot was to be cast far from my love,
 I feel now that I can still sing.