You Are Not Dead

They say you fell in the great fray
which lasted from morning to the next day.
You lay there among the pale bodies
I cannot believe it. I see you as before:
Your proud gestalt, your golden mood evermore
Oh, all the dear memories. . .

The day you came home I was faint and happy.
You stood there in the splendor of your company
for all us young ladies.
Naturally then, there was partying with song ablaze,
I blushed and trembled at your warm gaze.
Oh, all the golden memories.

When you came into the living room, with me to find,
then a jubilant joy filled my mind,
then opened smiling grins and energies
You said you loved me, manly and firm you spoke
Then I cried with happiness til my voice broke.
Oh, all the good memories!

That summer we often went for walks on the acre
you loved everything in God’s free nature –
the sun that warms and shines, oversees
all the flowers I saw with you
the time of light’s green against the sky’s blue,
Oh, this summer’s beautiful memories!

We rested in the grass with cheek to cheek.
I knew then that this happiness so complete
is often just a reverie. 
You kissed the forehead, eyes and mouth of your wife
For me, it was the sacred moment of life.
Oh, most precious memory. . .

You left on the highest commandment of duty.
I must be brave, your loyal beauty, 
even if hot tears down my face carry. 
You bestowed me happiness, my heart’s steadfast.
It’s not true that you are now passed,
you live in the child and my memories. . .

– From “Dagspressen”, in SS-hefte nr. 5, 1944 p.24, translated by Karl Jægerlund