Read "The Maid of the Mill's Repentance" by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
YOUTH.
AWAY, thou swarthy witch! Go forth
From out my house, I tell thee! Or else I needs must, in my wrath,
Expel thee! What's this thou singest so falsely, forsooth, Of love and a maiden's silent truth?
Who'll trust to such a story!
GIPSY.
I sing of a maid's repentant fears,
And long and bitter yearning; Her levity's changed to truth and tears
All-burning. She dreads no more the threats of her mother, She dreads far less the blows of her brother,
Than the dearly loved-one's hatred.
YOUTH.
Of selfishness sing and treacherous lies,
Of murder and thievish plunder! Such actions false will cause no surprise,
Or wonder. When they share their booty, both clothes and purse, -- As bad as you gipsies, and even worse,
Such tales find ready credence.
GIPSY.
"Alas, alas! oh what have I done?
Can listening aught avail me? I hear him toward my room hasten on,
To hail me. My heart beat high, to myself I said: 'O would that thou hadst never betray'd
That night of love to thy mother!"