Translation of Platen's Sonnet Number 57

AC Benus translation of "O süßer Tod" by August von Platen O mellifluous death, who stiffens most men, You've received but artless tribute from my tongue, For often I've yearned for you since I was young, And for the slumbers nothing can wake again. You sleepers you, the ground covering deep when The eternal lullabies lured and were sung So you gladly shunned the cup of life and swung Its taste round me like some bitter regimen? You masses too I fear the world has deceived, As your best intentions, thwarted and betrayed, Crushed fondest hopes as no one might have believed. In sum, blessèd are we beseeching death's blade, Knowing how our desires are heard unreprieved, And each heart must get cleaved 'neath an earth-turned spade.