THE LIGHT
We are in grief, when less on us bestowing
Your grace, you turn to others gladdened more,
When eventides in your reflected glowing
Our spirit lingers, yearning to adore.
We should be fools to let our hatred grasp you,
Though often with your blaze you threaten blight,
We should be children if we tried to clasp you—
Because you shine for one and all: Sweet Light!
Source of English translation: Stefan George, Poems, translated by Carol North Valhope and Ernst Morwitz. New York: Pantheon Books, 1943, p. 241.
Source of original German text: Stefan George, Das neue Reich. Gesamt-Ausgabe der Werke, Volume 9. Berlin: Georg Bondi, Endgültige Fassung, 1928, pp. 135-36.