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Poems Selected from Heinrich Heine – by Kate Freiligrath Kroeker

From the North Sea

Once united in the high heavens
Beamed in conjugal radiance
Luna, the goddess, and Sol, the god,
And round them clustered the stars
Their little innocent children
But slanderous tongues whispered discord and evil
And the bright exalted couple
Parted in anger
 
Now in the daytime, in lonely glory
Parades on high the God of the Sun
Adored and much lauded
For his fierce splendour
By proud men, hardened by fortune
But in the night
Luna moves over the sky
The forsaken mother
With her starry band of orphan children
And she beams with soft melancholy
And loving maidens and gentle poets
Offer her tears and ditties
 
Poor tender Luna.  Womanlike loves she
Loves without ceasing her handsome husband
And towards evening, all trembling and pale
You see her peering from fleecy clouds
And gazing with aching heart
On the departing; and fain would she cry
Anxiously 'Come
Come, the children are calling for you'
But the Sun god, proud and obdurate
At sight of his wife
Flushes a yet deeper purple
With anger and grief
And unrelenting he hastens down
To his cold and watery widower's bed