Allah gives light in darkness,
  Allah gives rest in pain,
Cheeks that are white with weeping
  Allah paints red again.

The flowers and the blossoms wither,
Years vanish with flying fleet;
But my heart will live on forever,
  That here in sadness beat.

Gladly to Allah’s dwelling
  Yonder would I take flight;
There will the darkness vanish,
  There will my eyes have sight.

by: Siegfried August Mahlmann – [1771to 1826] (tr. H.W. Longfellow)

Original German

Allah gibt Licht in Nächten,
Allah gibt Trost in Not!
Und bleich gehärmte Wange
Färbt Allah wieder rot!

Blumen und Blüten welken,
Jahre verschwinden im Flug;
Doch ach! mein Herz wird bleiben,
Das hier voll Schwermut schlug!

Fröhlich zu Allah's Wohnung
Werd' ich hinüber gehn,
Dort wird die Nacht verschwinden,
Dort wird mein Aug' ihn sehn.

Siegfried August Mahlmann was a German poet and editor.

Mahlmann was born in Leipzig, and studied law at the University of Leipzig. In his early life, he served as private tutor to a young nobleman, whom he accompanied to Göttingen and then on a trip through northern Europe. From 1799 he become a bookseller, writer, and editor. From 1806 to 1816 he edited the journal Zeitung für die elegante Welt, and from 1810 to 1818 the newspaper Leipziger Zeitung, the latter of which resulted in his brief imprisonment in 1813 by the French during the Napoleonic Wars, in the fortress of Erfurt.

Among his writings are a novel, Albano der Lautenspieler (1802), a parody of August von Kotzebue’s Die Hussiten vor Naumburg (1803), and various short stories. His poetry was quite popular in the 19th century, and was published in a collection in 1825, and again posthumously in 8 volumes in 1839–40, and 3 volumes in 1859. The poems “Sehnsucht” (1802) and “Weinlied” (1808) were his most popular. In addition, he adapted the lyrics of “God Save the King” for the Kingdom of Saxony, as “Gott segne Sachsenland” (“God Save Saxony”).