Farewell, dreamy sweet stream, O Meuse in meadows flowing,
You that lulled me in youth with your murmurings low,
Meuse, farewell, I must leave, even now I am going
To countries new and strange where you will never flow.
Behold that now I go to countries new and strange,
I shall join in the fray, and cross full many rivers,
Now I go to essay new work and strange new change,
Now I go far away to enter new endeavors.
And throughout all that time, Meuse, you will still be lowing,
Still sweet and unaware, on your accustomed courses,
There in the happy vale where grass is greenly growing,
O my belovéd Meuse of never-falling sources.
A silence.
There in the happy vale, you will ever be lowing,
Flowing to-morrow still, where you flowed yesterday.
Shepherdess gone away -- oh of her all unknowing,
Who as a child would scoop in the earth in her play
Little channels that now are demolished for aye.
Now the shepherdess goes, and her labs now she leaves,
Ay and the spinner goes, with her tasks incomplete.
See how I now must go, far from your waters sweet;
See how I now must go, far from my own dear eaves.
Meuse who know naught of man, of his sorrows and sinning,
O Meuse my childhood's joy that naught can ever alter,
You know naught of how parting makes human heart falter,
You who ever will pass and never will depart,
You know naught of our lies and naught of our deceit,
O Meuse that, never changed, I love with all my heart.
A silence.
When shall I come again once more to do my spinning,
When once more see your waves that flow back home, O when?
When shall we meet again? And shall we meet again?
Meuse O my Meuse beloved still as in the beginning.