The Poems of Goethe Part 96

Adding grapes in full-grown splendour.

Long-neck'd flasks I put as dishes

For the crane, without delaying, Fill'd with gold and silver fishes,

In the limpid water playing.

Had ye witness'd Reynard planted

At his flat plate, all demurely, Ye with envy must have granted:

"Ne'er was such a gourmand, surely!"

While the bird with circ.u.mspection

On one foot, as usual, cradled, From the flasks his fish-refection

With his bill and long neck ladled.

One the pigeons praised,--the other,

As they went, extoll'd the fishes, Each one scoffing at his brother

For preferring vulgar dishes.

If thou wouldst preserve thy credit,

When thou askest folks to guzzle At thy h.o.a.rd, take care to spread it

Suited both for bill and muzzle.

1819.

----- THE FOX AND HUNTSMAN.

HARD 'tis on a fox's traces

To arrive, midst forest-glades; Hopeless utterly the chase is,

If his flight the huntsman aids.

And so 'tis with many a wonder,

(Why A B make Ab in fact,) Over which we gape and blunder,

And our head and brains distract.

1821.*

----- THE FROGS.

A POOL was once congeal'd with frost; The frogs, in its deep waters lost,

No longer dared to croak or spring; But promised, being half asleep, If suffer'd to the air to creep,

As very nightingales to sing.

A thaw dissolved the ice so strong,-- They proudly steer'd themselves along, When landed, squatted on the sh.o.r.e, And croak'd as loudly as before.

1821.*

----- THE WEDDING.

A FEAST was in a village spread,-- It was a wedding-day, they said.

The parlour of the inn I found, And saw the couples whirling round, Each la.s.s attended by her lad, And all seem'd loving, blithe, and glad; But on my asking for the bride, A fellow with a stare, replied: "'Tis not the place that point to raise!

We're only dancing in her honour; We now have danced three nights and days,

And not bestowed one thought upon her."

Whoe'er in life employs his eyes Such cases oft will recognise.

1821.*

----- BURIAL.

To the grave one day from a house they bore

A maiden; To the window the citizens went to explore; In splendour they lived, and with wealth as of yore

Their banquets were laden.

Then thought they: "The maid to the tomb is now borne; We too from our dwellings ere long must be torn, And he that is left our departure to mourn,

To our riches will be the successor,

For some one must be their possessor.

1827.*

----- THREATENING SIGNS.

IF Venus in the evening sky Is seen in radiant majesty, If rod-like comets, red as blood, Are 'mongst the constellations view'd, Out springs the Ignoramus, yelling: "The star's exactly o'er my dwelling!

What woeful prospect, ah, for me!

Then calls his neighbour mournfully: "Behold that awful sign of evil, Portending woe to me, poor devil!

My mother's asthma ne'er will leave her, My child is sick with wind and fever; I dread the illness of my wife, A week has pa.s.s'd, devoid of strife,-- And other things have reach'd my ear; The Judgment Day has come, I fear!"

His neighbour answered: "Friend, you're right!