Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GERMANY; A WINTER TALE: CAPUT 23, by HEINRICH HEINE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GERMANY; A WINTER TALE: CAPUT 23, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Though as a republic hamburg was ne'er
Last Line: "yes, even to hell in a canter!"
Subject(s): Food & Eating; Hamburg, Germany; Publishing; Publishers


THOUGH as a republic Hamburg was ne'er
As great as Venice or Florence,
Yet Hamburg has better oysters; one gets
The best in the cellar of Laurence.

I went there with Campe at evening time,
When splendid was the weather,
Intending on oysters and Rhenish wine
To have a banquet together.

I found some excellent company there,
And greatly was delighted
To see many old friends, such as Chaufepie,
And new ones, self-invited.

There Wille was, whose very face
Was an album where foes academic
Right legibly had inscribed their names
In the shape of scars polemic.

There Fucks was also, a heathen blind,
And personal foe of Jehovah,
Who believed but in Hegel, and slightly perhaps
In the Venus of Canova.

My Campe was our Amphytrion there,
And smiled and enjoy'd the honour;
His eye was beaming with happiness,
Just like an ecstatic Madonna.

I ate and drank with an appetite good,
And these thoughts then cross'd my noddle
"This Campe is really an excellent man,
"And of publishers quite the model.

"Another publisher, I feel sure,
"Would have left me of hunger to perish;
"But he has given me drink as well,
"His name I ever shall cherish.

"I thank the mighty Lord of all
"Who this juice of the grape created,
"And Campe to me as a publisher gave,
"Whose merits can't be overrated.

"I thank the mighty Lord of all
"Who by His own mere motion
"Created on earth the Rhenish wine,
"And the oysters in the ocean.

"Who also made the lemons to grow,
"The oyster's flavour to sweeten, --
"O may I peacefully to-night
"Digest what I have eaten!"

The Rhenish wine makes my feelings soft,
All quarrelsome thoughts congealing
Within my breast, and kindling instead
A philanthropic feeling.

It now compell'd me to leave the room,
And through the streets to wander;
My soul sought a soul, and the sight of each dress
Of a woman made it still fonder.

In moments like this, with grief I could melt,
While my yearning makes me tremble;
The cats appear to me all too grey,
And Helens the women resemble. --

And when I came to the Drehbahn Street,
I saw in the moonbeams glancing
The noble form of a woman fair,
With stately grace advancing.

Her face was perfectly healthy and round,
Her cheek like a damask rose was,
Like a turquoise her eye, like a cherry her mouth,
While somewhat reddish her nose was.

Her head was cover'd with a cap
Of snowy stiff linen, not ragged,
But folded like a mural crown,
With turrets and battlements jagged.

She wore as her dress a tunic white
Which down to her calves descended;
And O what calves! The pedestals they
Of two Doric columns splendid.

A very worldly naivete
Could be read in her every feature,
But her superhuman hinder parts
Betray'd a superior creature.

She now approach'd me, and straightway said:
"To the Elbe here's a welcome hearty!
"E'en after an absence of thirteen years,
"I see that thou'rt still the same party!

"Perchance thou seekest the souls so fair
"Who so often used to meet thee,
"And all night long in this beautiful place
"With their reveries loved to greet thee.

"By that hundred-headed hydra, Life,
"That monster fierce, they were swallow'd;
"Thou'lt find those olden times no more,
"Nor those friends once lovingly follow'd.

"No longer thou'lt find those beauteous flowers,
"Which enchanted thy youthful bosom;
"'Twas here they bloom'd, -- they're wither'd now,
"And the tempest has scatter'd each blossom.

"Yes, wither'd, and stripp'd, and trampled down
"By destiny's footsteps appalling --
"My friend, this is ever the fate upon earth
"Of all that is sweet and enthralling!" --

"Who art thou?" I cried -- "like a dream of old times
"Thy appearance doth strangely beset me;
"Where is thy dwelling, enormous one?
"I'll follow thee there, if thou'lt let me."

The woman then smiled, and thus she replied:
"Thou art wrong, I'm a decent and quiet
"And highly moral personage too,
"By no means given to riot.

'I'm none of your foreign lorettes, my friend,
"And none of your common ladies;
'I'm Hamburg's goddess, Hammonia by name,
"And to watch o'er its welfare my trade is!

'Thou art started perchance to hear this news,
"Thou once undaunted singer?
"Art thou prepared to follow me still?
"Then quick, and no more let us linger."

Put I in reply laugh'd loudly and cried:
"I'll follow thee instanter!
"If thou'lt go in front, I'll go behind, --
"Yes, even to hell in a canter!"





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