–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1771
ENGLISH
FIRST LOSS
AH! who’ll e’er those days restore,
Those bright days of early love!
Who’ll one hour again concede,
Of that time so fondly cherish’d!
Silently my wounds I feed,
And with wailing everymore
Sorrow o’er each joy now perish’d.
Ah! who’ll e’er the days restore
Of that time so fondly cherish’d.
–Translation by Edgar A. Bowring (1853)
Work Cited
Bowring, Edgar A. (1919). Poems of Goethe. Chicago: Belford, Clarke & Co.
Kurz, Heinrich. Goethes Werk. Volume 1. Leipzig: Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts.
Copyright 2020 by Robyn Lowrie. May be quoted in part or full only with attribution to Robyn Lowrie (www.frenchquest.com)
My French Quest 
Nice to re-read some of these early Goethe poems, which I haven’t looked at for decades.
Just one little thing, well two actually. The title of the poem in German is “Erster Verlust”, with a V not a B. Same with the publisher. The word “Verlag” (again with a V not B) means “publishing house”, so that can’t be the full name. In this case, the publisher was the “Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts” in Leipzig. Or maybe “Verlag Meyer”, depending on which edition you have.
The capital letter V in Fraktur really does look like a B (as does “ß” for that matter), so it’s no wonder the Fraktur font has gone out of fashion. It caused more trouble than it was worth.
Thank you, Nemorino, for pointing out this important error! It has been a challenge to translate from the Fraktur and that is why I am now using Edgar Bowring’s translations of the early 1900’s. I was not doing any justice to Goethe’s original works. But I do love his poems and the translating of the original text so much. I just read “The Sorrows of Young Werther” for the first time-Wow. I feel that “Erster Verlust” relates directly to Goethe’s personal experiences which are also related in Werther, n’est-ce pas?
Both are from his twenties, but he wrote the poem three years before Werther.
Do you know the opera ‘Werther’ by Jules Massenet, by any chance?
No, I am not familiar with this.
I think this opera is a successful adaptation of Goethe’s novel.
https://operasandcycling.com/massenets-werther-in-brussels/
By the way, there is no real need to struggle with Fraktur, which is just an old-fashioned printing font, not a language variant. All of Goethe’s works have been published in modern editions with ordinary modern fonts that are much easier to read.
Yes you are right about the font. However, I recently purchased seven volumes of Goethe’s works in Fraktur script and I’m hopelessly remaining loyal to these “treasures” which I have assigned an unrequited sentiment!!
By coincidence I also have Goethe’s (and Schiller’s) complete works printed in Fraktur, in undated but obviously very old editions that I inherited from my father. These are great to take down off the shelf and look through, but for serious reading I tend to use modern editions which are smaller and handier to carry around.
Your complete works of Goethe is definitely more of a “treasure” as it is from your father!!