Donna Clara

Heinrich Heine

1827

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This text includes hate speech against people from Africa and Jews. This text provides insight into Jewish history; however, The Posen Library does not condone or promote hate speech of any kind.

In the evening through her garden

Wanders the Alcalde’s daughter;

Festal sounds of drum and trumpet

Ring out hither from the castle.

“I am weary of the dances,

Honeyed words of adulation

From the knights who still compare me

To the sun,—with dainty phrases.

“Yes, of all the things I am weary,

Since I first beheld by moonlight,

Him my cavalier, whose zither

Nightly draws me to my casement.

“As he stands, so slim and daring,

With his flaming eyes that sparkle

From his nobly-pallid features,

Truly he St. George resembles.”

Thus went Donna Clara dreaming,

On the ground her eyes were fastened,

When she raised them, lo! before her

Stood the handsome, knightly stranger.

Pressing hands and whispering passion,

These twain wander in the moonlight.

Gently doth the breeze caress them,

The enchanted roses greet them.

The enchanted roses greet them,

And they glow like love’s own heralds;

“Tell me, tell me, my beloved,

Wherefore, all at once thou blushest.”

“Gnats were stinging me, my darling,

And I hate these gnats in summer,

E’en as though they were a rabble

Of vile Jews with long, hooked noses.”

“Heed not gnats nor Jews, beloved,”

Spake the knight with fond endearments.

From the almond-tree dropped downward

Myriad snowy flakes of blossoms.

Myriad snowy flakes of blossoms

Shed around them fragrant odors.

“Tell me, tell me, my beloved,

Looks thy heart on me with favor?”

“Yes, I love thee, oh my darling,

And I swear it by our Savior,

Whom the accursed Jews did murder

Long ago with wicked malice.”

“Heed thou neither Jews nor Savior,”

Spake the knight with fond endearments;

Far-off waved as in a vision

Gleaming lilies bathed in moonlight.

Gleaming lilies bathed in moonlight

Seemed to watch the stars above them.

“Tell me, tell me, my belovèd,

Didst thou not erewhile swear falsely?”

“Naught is false in me, my darling,

E’en as in my bosom floweth

Not a drop of blood that’s Moorish,

Neither of foul Jewish current.”

“Heed not Moors nor Jews, belovèd,”

Spake the knight with fond endearments.

Then towards a grove of myrtles

Leads he the Alcalde’s daughter.

And with love’s slight, subtle meshes,

He hath trapped her and entangled;

Brief their words, but long their kisses,

For their hearts are overflowing.

What a melting bridal carol,

Sings the nightingale, the pure one!

How the fire-flies in the grasses

Trip their sparkling, torch-light dances!

In the grove the silence deepens;

Naught is heard save furtive rustling

Of the swaying myrtle branches,

And the breathing of the flowers.

But the sound of drum and trumpet

Burst forth sudden from the castle.

Rudely they awaken Clara,

Pillowed on her lover’s bosom.

“Hark, they summon me, my darling.

But before I go, oh tell me,

Tell me what thy precious name is,

Which so closely thou hast hidden.”

And the knight, with gentle laughter,

Kissed the fingers of his donna,

Kissed her lips and kissed her forehead,

And at last these words he uttered:

I, Señora, your belovèd,

Am the son of the respected

Worthy, erudite Grand Rabbi,

Israel of Saragossa!”

Translated by

Emma

Lazarus

Credits

Heinrich Heine, “Donna Clara,” in Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine, by Heinrich Heine, trans. Emma Lazarus (New York: R. Worthington, 1881), 9–14, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433075726194&seq=39.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.