“As a butterfly flutters around a flower “And from its calyx sips too, So flutters my soul for evermore “Around her rosy lips too.
“Around her noble features entwine “Her blooming black locks wildly; Thy breath would be gone if once her great eyes “Were fix’d upon thee mildly.
“If her great eyes upon thee were fix’d “They surely would harass thee greatly; ’Twas with the greatest trouble that I “Escaped from the mountain lately.
“From out of the mountain I made my escape “And yet for ever pursue me “The looks of the beautiful woman, which seem “To say ‘O hasten back to me!’
“A wretched spectre by day I’ve become, “At night I vainly would hide me “In sleep, for I dream that my mistress dear “Is sitting and laughing beside me.
“How clearly, how sweetly, how madly she laughs “Her white teeth all the while showing! “Whenever I think of that laugh, in streams “The tears from my eyes begin flowing.
“I love her indeed with a boundless love “That scorches me up to a cinder; “’Tis like a wild waterfall, whose fierce flood “No barrier ever can hinder.
“It nimbly leaps from rock to rock “With noisy foaming and boiling; “Its neck it may break a thousand times, “Yet on, still on, it keeps toiling.
“If all the expanse of the heavens were mine, “To Venus the whole I’d surrender; “I’d give her the sun, I’d give her the moon, “I’d give her the stars in their splendour.
“I love her indeed with a boundless love, “Whose flame within me rages; “O say can this be the fire of hell, “The glow that will last through all ages?
“O holy Father, Pope Urban, to whom “To bind and to loose not too much is, “O save me from the pangs of hell, “And out of the Evil One’s clutches!--”
His hands the Pope raised sadly on high, And sigh’d till these words he had spoken: “Tannhauser, most unhappy knight, “The charm can never be broken.
“The Devil whom they Venus call “Is mighty for hurting and harming; “I’m powerless quite to rescue thee “From out of his talons so charming.
“And so thy soul must expiate now Thy fleshly lusts infernal; Yes, thou art rejected, yes, thou art condemn’d To suffer hell’s torments eternal.”
The knight Tannhauser roam’d on till his feet Were sore with his wanderings dreary. At midnight’s hour he came at length To the Venus’ mountain, full weary.