Versos English Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Lisbeth

English poem

Lisbeth

by (1749–1832)

Listen in the reader

Dost pity her, at that? When one of us at spinning sat, And mother, nights, ne’er let us out the door She sported with her paramour. On the door-bench, in the passage dark, The length of the time they’d never mark. So now her head no more she’ll lift, But do church-penance in her sinner’s shift!