It has [become so]1 quiet.
The evening breeze has rustled itself out.
Now one hears everywhere
The footsteps of the angels.
All around darkness sinks
Powerfully into the [valleys]2;
Cast off, heart, what grieves you
And what makes you anxious!
 
The world rests in silence,
Its turbulence is past,
Its roundelay of joy is mute,
And mute its cry of pain;
Whether it provided roses,
Whether it brought thorns,
Cast off, heart, what grieves you
And what makes you anxious!
 
And if today you erred,
Oh do not look back;
Feel yourself animated
By the good fortune of free grace.
The shepherd upon his watch on high
Thinks also of the lost one--
Cast off, heart, what grieves you
And what makes you anxious!
 
Now all about the heavens
The stars stand in majesty.
Along the old, firm pathway
The golden carriage [the moon] is travelling.
And like the stars, it directs
Your way through the night.
Cast off, heart, what grieves you
And what makes you anxious!

From the valley to the mountaintops,
As far as the eye can see,
There is a blossoming in all the treetops.
Now the wandering begins:

The water springs from the rocky crags,
The rivers on the green plains,
The larks high in the air,
The poet briskly before them all.

And those who in the valley
Are blighted and constrained by anxieties,
[The poet wishes to entice them all]1
To join into this wandering.

And down from the mountains
His [song]2 rings out into the valley,
And the scattered brethren
[Are all seized by homesickness]3.

Then the world becomes so merry
And a man takes his walking shoes;
His beloved in the midst of all this,
She nods to [him]4 clandestinely.

And over the rocky cliffs
And upon the green plain
There is endless whirring and rejoicing --
Now the wandering begins!