The Poems of Goethe Part 124

WOULD we let our envy burst,

Feed its hunger fully first!

To keep our proper place,

We'll show our bristles more; With hawks men all things chase,

Except the savage boar.

----- BY those who themselves more bravely have fought A hero's praise will be joyfully told.

The worth of man can only be taught By those who have suffer'd both heat and cold.

----- "WHEREFORE is truth so far from our eyes, Buried as though in a distant land?"

None at the proper moment are wise!

Could they properly understand,

Truth would appear in her own sweet guise, Beauteous, gentle, and close at hand.

----- WHY these inquiries make,

Where charity may flow?

Cast in the flood thy cake,--

Its eater, who will know?

----- ONCE when I a spider had kill'd,

Then methought: wast right or wrong?

That we both to these times should belong, This had G.o.d in His goodness willed.

----- MOTLEY this congregation is, for, lo!

At the communion kneel both friend and foe.

----- IF the country I'm to show, Thou must on the housetop go.

----- A MAN with households twain

Ne'er finds attention meet, A house wherein two women reign

Is ne'er kept clean and neat.

----- BLESS, thou dread Creator,

Bless this humble fane; Man may build them greater,--

More they'll not contain.

----- LET this house's glory rise,

Handed to far ages down,

And the son his honour prize.

As the father his renown.

----- O'ER the Mediterranean sea

Proudly hath the Orient sprung; Who loves Hafis and knows him, he

Knows what Caldron hath sung.

----- IF the a.s.s that bore the Saviour

Were to Mecca driven, he

Would not alter, but would be Still an a.s.s in his behavior.

----- THE flood of pa.s.sion storms with fruitless strife

'Gainst the unvanquished solid land.--

It throws poetic pearls upon the strand, And thus is gain'd the prize of life.

----- WHEN so many minstrels there are,

How it pains me, alas, to know it!

Who from the earth drives poetry far?

Who but the poet!

----- VII. TIMUR NAME.

BOOK OF TIMUR.

THE WINTER AND TIMUR.

So the winter now closed round them With resistless fury. Scattering Over all his breath so icy, He inflamed each wind that blithe To a.s.sail them angrily.

Over them he gave dominion To his frost-unsharpened tempests; Down to Timur's council went he, And with threat'ning voice address'd him:-- "Softly, slowly, wretched being!

Live, the tyrant of injustice; But shall hearts be scorch'd much longer By thy flames,--consume before them?

If amongst the evil spirits Thou art one,--good! I'm another.

Thou a greybeard art--so I am; Land and men we make to stiffen.

Thou art Mars! And I Saturnus,-- Both are evil-working planets, When united, horror-fraught.

Thou dost kill the soul, thou freezes E'en the atmosphere; still colder Is my breath than thine was ever.

Thy wild armies vex the faithful With a thousand varying torments; Well! G.o.d grant that I discover Even worse, before I peris.h.!.+

And by G.o.d, I'll give thee none.

Let G.o.d hear what now I tell thee!

Yes, by G.o.d! from Death's cold clutches Nought, O greybeard, shall protect thee, Not the hearth's broad coalfire's ardour, Not December's brightest flame."

1814.

----- TO SULEIKA.

FITTING perfumes to prepare,

And to raise thy rapture high, Must a thousand rosebuds fair

First in fiery torments die.

One small flask's contents to glean,

Whose sweet fragrance aye may live, Slender as thy finger e'en,

Must a world its treasures give;