HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Meanwhile the ship wrestles
With the wild billowy dde.
Like a rearing war-horse she stands erect.
Upon her stern, till the helm cracks.
Now crashes she headforemost downward once more
Into the howling abyss of waters.
Then again, as if recklessly love-languid.
She tries to recline
On the black bosom of the gigantic waves,
Which powerfully seethe upward,
And immediately a chaotic ocean-cataract
Plunges down in crisp-curling whiteness.
And covers me with foam.
This shaking and swinging and tossing
Is unendurable!
Vainly mine eye peers forth and seeks
The German coast. But alas! only water,
And everywhere water—turbulent water!
Even as the traveller in winter thirsts
For a warm cordial cup of tea.
So does my heart now thirst for thee
My German fatherland.
May thy sweet soil ever be covered
With lunacy, hussars and bad verses,
And thinv lukewarm treatises.
May thy zebras ever be fattened
274