The Poems of Goethe, Translated in the Original Metres · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
FIVE THINGS.
WHAT makes time short to me? Activity! What makes it long and spiritless? 'Tis idleness! What brings us to debt? To delay and forget! What makes us succeed? Decision with speed How to fame to ascend? Oneself to defend! 1814 ----- FOR woman due allowance make! Form'd of a crooked rib was she,-- By Heaven she could not straightened be. Attempt to bend her, and she'll break; If left alone, more crooked grows madam; What well could be worse, my good friend, Adam?-- For woman due allowance make; 'Twere grievous, if thy rib should break! 1819.* ----- FIRDUSI (Speaks). OH world, with what baseness and guilt thou art rife! Thou nurtures, trainest, and illest the while. He only whom Allah doth bless with his smile Is train'd and is nurtured with riches and life. 1819.* ----- SULEIKA (Speaks). THE mirror tells me, I am fair! Thou sayest, to grow old my fate will be. Nought in God's presence changeth e'er,-- Love him, for this one moment, then, in me. IT is a fault oneself to praise, And yet 'tis done by each whose deeds are kind; And if there's no deceit in what he says, The good we still as good shall find. Let, then, ye fools, that wise man taste Of joy, who fancies that he s wise, That he, a fool like you, may waste Th' insipid thanks the world supplies.
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