Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt
Only someone sick with yearning

Lieder der Mignon Songs for Mignon

Goethe

Only someone sick with yearning
Knows just what it is I feel;
Alone, cut off
From any pleasure
I scan the heavens
In the distance there.
But he who knows and loves me
Is so far from anywhere!
My heart and soul are burning,
And how my head does reel!
Only someone who’s been sick with yearning
Knows just what it is I feel.