Why, miles grow few when love is fleet,
  And love, you know, hath flying feet;
  Break off thy sighs and witness this,
  How poor a thing mere distance is.

  My love knows not I love her so,
  And would she scorn me, did she know? 
  How may the tale I would impart
  Attract her ear and storm her heart?

  Calm thou the tempest in my breast,
  Who loves in silence loves the best,
  But bide thy time, she will awake,
  No night so dark but morn will break.

  But though my heart so strongly yearn,
  My lady loves me not in turn,
  How may I win the blest reply
  That my void heart shall satisfy.

  Love breedeth love, be thou but true,
  And soon thy love shall love thee, too;
  If Fate hath meant you heart for heart,
  There’s naught may keep you twain apart.

HOW SHALL I WOO THEE

  How shall I woo thee to win thee, mine own? 
    Say in what tongue shall I tell of my love. 
  I who was fearless so timid have grown,
    All that was eagle has turned into dove. 
  The path from the meadow that leads to the bars
  Is more to me now than the path of the stars.

  How shall I woo thee to win thee, mine own,
    Thou who art fair and as far as the moon? 
  Had I the strength of the torrent’s wild tone,
    Had I the sweetness of warblers in June;
  The strength and the sweetness might charm and persuade,
  But neither have I my petition to aid.

  How shall I woo thee to win thee, mine own? 
    How shall I traverse the distance between
  My humble cot and your glorious throne? 
    How shall a clown gain the ear of a queen? 
  Oh teach me the tongue that shall please thee the best,
  For till I have won thee my heart may not rest.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1.  Many contractions which would normally be printed together in their shortened form are left spaced, as printed.  Sometimes this is done due to the meter of the poem.  Other times it is just the older way that printers handled these words.  The original was not always consistent about how these were handled, and may have been contracted to save space.

2.  Since this book has a significant amount of dialect, no attempt was made to change any odd spellings.  Some of these words are not easy to translate, but usually the context will be sufficient.  For instance, the word stuhs means stirs, as, ‘dat melody stuhs me up’.