Laudator Temporis Acti

Eduard Mörike (1804-1875), "Fußreise," Gedichte (Leipzig: Göschen, 1900), pp. 34-35 (tr. David Luke):

My wanderer’s staff’s fresh-hewn again
And the day is breaking
And my way I’m taking
Over the hills, through wood and glen:
And as birds that sing
As they flutter in the trees,
As they fly and take their ease,
Or as grapes in morning sun
Feel their golden joy begun,
So too my dear old sinful Adam, given
New strength from heaven,
Feels the autumn or the spring
Like an unlost ardour burning,
Eden’s first delight returning.

Well, old Adam, tell your moral teacher
That you’re really not so bad a creature,
For you still give thanks and praise
And sing with loving heart and true,
As if creation were for ever new,
To the good Maker who preserves your days.
May He grant it so
That the whole of life may be
(Though sweating slightly as I go)
A morning walk like this for me!

Am frischgeschnittnen Wanderstab,
Wenn ich in der Frühe
So durch die Wälder ziehe,
Hügel auf und ab:
Dann, wie′s Vögelein im Laube
Singet und sich rührt,
Oder wie die goldne Traube
Wonnegeister spürt
In der ersten Morgensonne:
So fühlt auch mein alter, lieber
Adam Herbst- und Frühlingsfieber,
Gottbeherzte,
Nie verscherzte
Erstlings-Paradieseswonne.

Also bist du nicht so schlimm, o alter
Adam, wie die strengen Lehrer sagen:
Liebst und lobst du immer doch,
Singst und preisest immer noch,
Wie an ewig neuen Schöpfungstagen,
Deinen lieben Schöpfer und Erhalter!
Möcht′ es dieser geben
Und mein ganzes Leben
Wär′ im leichten Wanderschweiße
Eine solche Morgenreise!

A more literal translation by Stanley Appelbaum, with his note:

When, leaning on my freshly cut walking staff
In the morning
I pass through the forests like this,
Uphill and down:
Then, just as the songbird in the leaves
Sings and stirs,
Or as the golden grapes
Feel spirits of bliss
In the first morning sun:
Thus does my dear old Adam³⁹
Feel autumn and spring fever,
The divinely inspirited,
Never-trifled-away
Pristine bliss of Paradise.

And so you are not as evil, O old
Adam, as the severe theologians say;
Just as on eternally new days of Creation,
You still love and praise,
You still sing and glorify
Your dear Creator and Sustainer.
If He grants it,
My whole life
Would be such a morning journey
In the light perspiration of travel!

39 That is, man’s primal nature, unrectified by religion.

The poem was set to music by Hugo Wolf, Mörike-Lieder, number 10.