for evil! 
Should new ties allure thee again, and a new habitation,
Enter with gratitude into the joys that fate shall prepare thee;
Love those purely who love thee; be grateful to them who show kindness. 
But thine uncertain foot should yet be planted but lightly,
For there is lurking the twofold pain of a new separation. 
Blessings attend thy life; but value existence no higher
Than thine other possessions, and all possessions are cheating!’
Thus spoke the noble youth, and never again I beheld him. 
Meanwhile I lost my all, and a thousand times thought of his warning. 
Here, too, I think of his words, when love is sweetly preparing
Happiness for me anew, and glorious hopes are reviving,
Oh forgive me, excellent friend, that e’en while I hold thee
Close to my side I tremble!  So unto the late-landed sailor
Seem the most solid foundations of firmest earth to be rocking.”

Thus she spoke, and placed the two rings on her finger together. 
But her lover replied with a noble and manly emotion: 
“So much the firmer then, amid these universal convulsions,
Be, Dorothea, our union!  We two will hold fast and continue,
Firmly maintaining ourselves, and the right to our ample possessions. 
For that man, who, when times are uncertain, is faltering in spirit,
Only increases the evil, and further and further transmits it;
While he refashions the world, who keeps himself steadfastly minded. 
Poorly becomes it the German to give to these fearful excitements
Aught of continuance, or to be this way and that way inclining. 
This is our own! let that be our word, and let us maintain it! 
For to those resolute peoples respect will be ever accorded,
Who for God and the laws, for parents, women and children,
Fought and died, as together they stood with their front to the foeman. 
Thou art mine own; and now what is mine, is mine more than ever. 
Not with anxiety will I preserve it, and trembling enjoyment;
Rather with courage and strength.  To-day should the enemy threaten,
Or in the future, equip me thyself and hand me my weapons. 
Let me but know that under thy care are my house and dear parents,
Oh!  I can then with assurance expose my breast to the foeman. 
And were but every man minded like me, there would be an upspring
Might against might, and peace should revisit us all with its gladness.”