The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume V Part 31

Once a strange old man went singing, Words of scornful admonition To the streets and markets bringing: "In the wilds a voice am I!

Slowly, slowly seek your mission; Naught in haste, or rash endeavor-- From the work yet ceasing never Slow and sure the hour draws nigh!

Time's great branches cease from shaking; Blind are ye, devoid of reason, If its fruit ye would be taking When its blossoms have but burst.

Let it ripen to its season, Wind within its branches bl.u.s.ter-- Of itself the fruits 'twill muster For whose juices ripe ye thirst."

Wild, excited crowds are scorning In their guise the gray old singer, Thus reward him for his warning, Ape his songs in mockery: "Shall we let the fellow linger To disgrace us? Stone him, beat him, With the scorn he merits treat him-- Let the world his folly see!"

So the strange old man went singing, To the halls of royal splendor Scornful admonition bringing: "In the wilds a voice am I!

Doubt not, dream not of surrender: Forward, forward, never ceasing, Strength in spite of all increasing-- Slow and sure the hour draws nigh!

With the stream, before the breezes Wouldst thou show thy strength, then teach it Both to conquer as it pleases-- Both are weaker than the grave.

Choose thy port, and steer to reach it!

Threatening rocks? The rudder's master; Turning back is sure disaster, And its end beneath the wave."

One was seen to blench in terror, Flushing first, then sudden paling: "Who gave entrance--whose the error Let this madman pa.s.s along?

All things show his wits are failing-- Shall he daze our people's senses?

Prison him with sure defenses, Silence hold his silly song!"

But the strange old man went singing Where within the tower they bound him-- Calm and clear his answer ringing: "In the wilds a voice am I!

Though the people's hate surround him, Must the prophet still endeavor, From his mission ceasing never-- Slow and sure the hour draws nigh!"

THE OLD WASHERWOMAN[43] (1833)

Among yon lines her hands have laden, A laundress with white hair appears, Alert as many a youthful maiden, Spite of her five-and-seventy years.

Bravely she won those white hairs, still Eating the bread hard toil obtain'd her, And laboring truly to fulfil The duties to which G.o.d ordain'd her.

Once she was young and full of gladness; She loved and hoped, was woo'd and won; Then came the matron's cares, the sadness No loving heart on earth may shun.

Three babes she bore her mate; she pray'd Beside his sick-bed; he was taken; She saw him in the churchyard laid, Yet kept her faith and hope unshaken.

The task her little ones of feeding She met unfaltering from that hour; She taught them thrift and honest breeding, Her virtues were their worldly dower.

To seek employment, one by one, Forth with her blessing they departed, And she was in the world alone, Alone and old, but still high-hearted.

With frugal forethought, self-denying, She gather'd coin and flax she bought, And many a night her spindle plying, Good store of fine-spun thread she wrought.

The thread was fashion'd in the loom; She brought it home, and calmly seated To work, with not a thought of gloom, Her decent grave-clothes she completed.

She looks on them with fond elation, They are her wealth, her treasure rare, Her age's pride and consolation, h.o.a.rded with all a miser's care.

She dons the sark each Sabbath day, To hear the Word that faileth never; Well-pleased she lays it then away, Till she shall sleep in it forever.

Would that my spirit witness bore me That, like this woman, I had done The work my Master put before me, Duly from morn till set of sun.

Would that life's cup had been by me Quaff'd in such wise and happy measure, And that I too might finally Look on my shroud with such meek pleasure.

THE WONDERFUL HISTORY OF PETER SCHLEMIHL (1814)

By ADALBERT VON CHAMISSO TRANSLATED BY FREDERIC H. HEDGE

CHAPTER I

After a fortunate, but for me very troublesome voyage, we finally reached the port. The instant that I touched land in the boat, I loaded myself with my few effects, and pa.s.sing through the swarming people, I entered the first, and most modest house, before which I saw a sign hang. I requested a room; the boots measured me with a look, and conducted me into the garret. I caused fresh water to be brought, and made him exactly describe to me where I should find Mr. Thomas John. He replied to my inquiry--"Before the north gate; the first country-house on the right hand; a large new house of red and white marble, with many columns."

"Good!" It was still early in the day. I opened at once my bundle; took thence my new black cloth coat; clad myself cleanly in my best apparel; put my letter of introduction into my pocket, and immediately set out on the way to the man who was to promote my modest expectations.

When I had ascended the long North Street, and reached the gate, I soon saw the pillars glimmer through the foliage. "Here it is, then,"

thought I. I wiped the dust from my shoes with my pocket-handkerchief, put my neckcloth in order, and in G.o.d's name rung the bell. The door flew open. In the hall I had an examination to undergo; the porter, however, permitted me to be announced, and I had the honor to be called into the park, where Mr. John was walking with a select party. I recognized the man at once by the l.u.s.tre of his corpulent self-complacency. He received me very well--as a rich man receives a poor devil--even turned toward me, without turning from the rest of the company, and took the offered letter from my hand. "So, so, from my brother! I have heard nothing from him for a long time. But he is well? There," continued he, addressing the company, without waiting for an answer, and pointing with the letter to a hill, "there I am going to erect the new building." He broke the seal without breaking off the conversation, which turned upon riches.

"He that is not master of a million, at least," he observed, "is--pardon me the word--a wretch!"

"O! how true!" I exclaimed with a rush of overflowing feeling.

That pleased him. He smiled at me, and said--"Stay here, my good friend; in a while I shall perhaps have time to tell you what I think about this." He pointed to the letter, which he then thrust into his pocket, and turned again to the company. He offered his arm to a young lady; the other gentlemen addressed themselves to other fair ones; each found what suited him; and all proceeded toward the rose-blossomed mound.

I slid into the rear, without troubling any one, for no one troubled himself any further about me. The company was excessively lively; there were dalliance and playfulness; trifles were sometimes discussed with an important tone, but oftener important matters with levity; and especially pleasantly flew the wit over absent friends and their circ.u.mstances. I was too strange to understand much of all this; too anxious and introverted to take an interest in such riddles.

We had reached the rosary. The lovely f.a.n.n.y, the belle of the day, as it appeared, would, out of obstinacy, herself break off a blooming bough. She wounded herself on a thorn, and as if from the dark roses, flowed the purple on her tender hand. This circ.u.mstance put the whole party into a flutter. English plaster was sought for. A still, thin, lanky, longish, oldish man, who stood near, and whom I had not hitherto remarked, put his hand instantly into the close-lying breast-pocket of his old French gray taffetty coat; produced thence a little pocket-book; opened it; and presented to the lady, with a profound obeisance, the required article. She took it without noticing the giver, and without thanks; the wound was bound up; and we went forward over the hill, from whose back the company could enjoy the wide prospect over the green labyrinth of the park to the boundless ocean.

The view was in reality vast and splendid. A light point appeared on the horizon between the dark flood and the blue of the heaven.

"A telescope here!" cried John; and already, before the servants who appeared at the call were in motion, the gray man, modestly bowing, had thrust his hand into his coat-pocket, and drawn thence a beautiful Dollond and handed it to John. Bringing it immediately to his eye, the latter informed the company that it was the ship which went out yesterday, and was detained in view of port by contrary winds. The telescope pa.s.sed from hand to hand, but not again into that of its owner. I, however, gazed in wonder at the man, and could not conceive how the great machine had come out of the narrow pocket; but this seemed to have struck no one else, and n.o.body troubled himself any farther about the gray man than about myself.

Refreshments were handed round; the choicest fruits of every zone, in the costliest vessels. Mr. John did the honors with an easy grace, and a second time addressed a word to me. "Help yourself; you have not had the like at sea." I bowed, but he saw it not; he was already speaking with some one else.

The company would fain have reclined upon the sward on the slope of the hill, opposite to the outstretched landscape, had they not feared the dampness of the earth. "It were divine," observed one of the party, "had we but a Turkey carpet to spread here." The wish was scarcely expressed when the man in the gray coat had his hand in his pocket, and was busied in drawing thence, with a modest and even humble deportment, a rich Turkey carpet interwoven with gold. The servants received it as a matter of course, and opened it on the required spot. The company, without ceremony, took their places upon it; for myself, I looked again in amazement on the man, at the pocket, at the carpet, which measured above twenty paces long and ten in breadth, and rubbed my eyes, not knowing what to think of it, especially as n.o.body saw anything extraordinary in it.

I would fain have had some explanation regarding the man, and have asked who he was, but I knew not to whom to address myself, for I was almost more afraid of the gentlemen's servants than of the served gentlemen. At length I took courage, and stepped up to a young man who appeared to me to be of less consideration than the rest, and who had often stood alone. I begged him softly to tell me who the agreeable man in the gray coat there was.

"He there, who looks like an end of thread that has escaped out of a tailor's needle?"

"Yes, he who stands alone."

"I don't know him," he replied, and, as it seemed, in order to avoid a longer conversation with me he turned away and spoke of indifferent matters to another.

The sun began now to shine more powerfully, and to inconvenience the ladies. The lovely f.a.n.n.y addressed carelessly to the gray man, whom, as far as I am aware, no one had yet spoken to, the trifling question, "Whether he had not, perchance, also a tent by him?" He answered her by an obeisance most profound, as if an unmerited honor were done him, and had already his hand in his pocket, out of which I saw come canvas, poles, cordage, iron-work--in short, everything which belongs to the most splendid pleasure-tent. The young gentlemen helped to expand it, and it covered the whole extent of the carpet, and n.o.body found anything remarkable in it.

I had already become uneasy, nay, horrified at heart, but how completely so, as, at the very next wish expressed, I saw him yet pull out of his pocket three roadsters--I tell thee, three beautiful great black horses, with saddle and caparison. Bethink thee! for G.o.d's sake!--three saddled horses, still out of the same pocket from which already a pocket-book, a telescope, an embroidered carpet, twenty paces long and ten broad, a pleasure-tent of equal dimensions, and all the requisite poles and irons, had come forth! If I did not protest to thee that I saw it myself with my own eyes, thou couldst not possibly believe it.

Embarra.s.sed and obsequious as the man himself appeared to be, little as was the attention which had been bestowed upon him, yet to me his grisly aspect, from which I could not turn my eyes, became so fearful that I could bear it no longer.

I resolved to steal away from the company, which from the insignificant part I played in it seemed to me an easy affair. I proposed to myself to return to the city, to try my luck again on the morrow with Mr. John, and if I could muster the necessary courage, to question him about the singular gray man. Had I only had the good fortune to escape so well!

I had already actually succeeded in stealing through the rosary, and, in descending the hill, found myself on a piece of lawn, when, fearing to be encountered in crossing the gra.s.s out of the path, I cast an inquiring glance round me. What was my terror to behold the man in the gray coat behind me, and making toward me! In the next moment he took off his hat before me, and bowed so low as no one had ever yet done to me. There was no doubt but that he wished to address me, and, without being rude, I could not prevent it. I also took off my hat; bowed also; and stood there in the sun with bare head as if rooted to the ground. I stared at him full of terror, and was like a bird which a serpent has fascinated. He himself appeared very much embarra.s.sed.

He raised not his eyes; again bowed repeatedly; drew nearer, and addressed me with a soft, tremulous voice, almost in a tone of supplication.

"May I hope, sir, that you will pardon my boldness in venturing in so unusual a manner to approach you, but I would ask a favor. Permit me most condescendingly----"