The Poems of Goethe, Translated in the Original Metres · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1815. ----- THE SEVEN SLEEPERS.
Six among the courtiers favour'd Fly before the Caesar's fury, Who would as a god be worshipp'd, Though in truth no god appearing, For a fly prevents him ever From enjoying food at table. Though with fans his servants scare it, They the fly can never banish. It torments him, stings, and troubles, And the festal board perplexes, Then returning like the herald Of the olden crafty Fly-God. "What!"--the striplings say together-- "Shall a fly a god embarrass? Shall a god drink, eat at table, Like us mortals? No, the Only, Who the sun and moon created, And the glowing stars arch'd o'er us, He is God,--we'll fly!"--The gentle, Lightly shod, and dainty striplings Did a shepherd meet, and hide them, With himself, within a cavern. And the sheep-dog will not leave them,-- Scared away, his foot all-mangled, To his master still he presses, And he joins the hidden party, Joins the favorites of slumber. And the prince, whom they had fled from, Fondly-furious, thinks of vengeance, And, discarding sword and fire, Has them walled-up in the cavern, Walled-up fast with bricks and mortar. But the others slumber ever, And the Angel, their protector, Gives before God's throne this notice "To the right and left alternate Have I ever cared to turn them, That their fair and youthful members Be not by the mould-damp injured; Clefts within the rocks I open'd, That the sun may, rising, setting, Keep their cheeks in youthful freshness." So they lie there, bless'd by Heaven. And, with forepaws sound and scatheless, Sleeps the dog in gentle slumber.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.