Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79.

Turkey in Europe, and the Principalities: Moldavia

Adieu to Moldavia

By From the Roumanian

Translated by H. Stanley

COUNTRY dear and beautiful;

O Moldavia, my beloved!

Whoever departs and leaves thee

Is struck with heavy grief,

For, floating in soft visions

On thy breast, as in a paradise,

Sweet is life with thee,

Like a sweet day in May!

I leave thee, loved country,

I take myself away from thy sky;

But with my soul in mourning,

I weep bitterly, bitterly sigh.

Sad now at parting,

I am seized with shivering;

And now every sweet illusion

For me is extinguished.

Who knows, who knows

Whether, driven by the wind of fate,

I shall return in joyousness

To kiss thy soil!

If I shall see once again

Thy echoing mountains,

Which, with uplifted heads,

Lose themselves proudly amid the clouds,

And thy forests of verdure,

Where flow and gently whisper

The cool rills that give life,

The songs that tell of regret.

And thy sky that smiles

To the soul of the Rouman,

And all that loves me,

And all that I love!

Here is the hour of setting forth;

Here is the very bitter hour!

Joy and happiness,

I leave them on thy frontier,

And my soul says to thee:

“O Moldavia! that I mourn for,

Adieu! remain happy,

That I may again find thee happy.”