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Finnish Arts

A DRINKING SONG

George Borrow translation

O how my breast is glowing When I am drinking wine; And how my verse is flowing In honour of the nine.

How vanish grief and sorrow When I am drinking wine; Each thought about the morrow, Each project and design.

Through roseate space I’m gliding When I am drinking wine; My spirit ’neath the guiding Of Bacchus, the divine.

I crown my head with flowers When I am drinking wine, And say: “Almighty powers, A quiet life be mine!”

The air with sweets perfuming, When I am drinking wine, I sit with damsel blooming Beneath a spreading vine.

No thought am I concealing When I am drinking wine; My bosom’s all revealing, I sit beneath the vine.

My tongue I watch not over When I am drinking wine; My heart I all discover, And naught within confine.

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London: Printed for THOMAS J. WISE, Hampstead, N.W. Edition limited to Thirty Copies.

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