TODAY will bring you naught
More than yesterday brought.
WHO AT BIRTH has ills endured,
He to hardship is inured.
HOWEVER CLEAR or simple be it,
Finder or doer alone may see it.
ACT Now before the night
Blots out your light.
WHEN THE overburdened cries
‘Even hope my lot denies’
There is solace, let it be heard—
The brotherly word.
WHY BEMOAN an enemy?
Would you have him, then, as friend
Whom every self that you can be
Will secretly offend?
WHEN GREAT DAYS come to the wise,
This is hard to bear numbly:
To be counselled by fools to wear
Their greatness humbly.
To IGNORANCE the wise descend
When with the ignorant they contend.
Translated by Isidor Schneider
To SEE the whole town at a time,
To the rooftop we must climb.
THANKSGIVING to Allah from my heart
For keeping suffering and knowledge apart.
How more grievous would diseases grow
If the ill knew what their doctors know!
ALL THIS RHAPSODY and chanting
Leave me overwhelmed and panting.
No one clubs the muse so hard
As the bard.
DAMMED MAY all these humans be!
They’ve driven me fair frantic.
Let me never, never see
Another human antic.
To themselves I leave all men—
To God or to the devil!
Yet show a human face again,
Again I crave the evil!
WHAT WILL NOT MIX don’t let us press together.
I leave you free to choose your when and whether.
In turn leave me at peace; we’ll never mix, we two,
I who was born antique, and you, so new!
To KNOW your powers, look in your mind;
Not from me starts your creation.
In my words you’d feel confined.
Go to God for inspiration.
IN THE MASTERS’ WORKS I see my quits-
It’s always more than I’ve believed.
Reviewing then my seven bits
I see what should have been achieved.
UNDER THE TONGUE’S a good place to hide;
He who stays silent keeps care aside.
YOU ASK ME why stray? You want me back
Upon the comfortable beaten track.
I’ll still veer off though you think it a waste;
I never wrote to please your taste.
ARTIST BLOW your horn a little.
Honors come with noise and spittle.
Praise before and blame today?
Neither matters while they pay.
A GOOD and chipper lad was I
Then a full blooded youth and spry-
Good forecast of a man.
But love made claim and cost me dear,
Pursued by sorrow I reached here,
—And no further ran.
As A LAD, glum and suspicious,
As a youth, proud and capricious,
But of life never fearful.
So prove my gray years cheerful.
—On your tombstone will be seen,
“He in truth a man has been.”
THE RIGHT is soon found
When God looks around.
IN THIS no paradox is said;
“Whom God misleads is well misled.”
IF THE INFINITE you would stride,
Pace the Finite’s every side.
THE SPARKLING WORDS, the words of glee
I hunted everywhere;
But grim days contented me—
I found the best words there.
To HAVE the whole thing in your heart
You must con its every part.
AFTER KINGS have been to meeting
Bad news follows in their greeting.
YOU’VE MADE PATIENCE a habit? Say it loud,
Of that achievement, man, be proud!
No WELL DONE CHESTNUTS for your tongue to roll.
Too long they’ve roasted; now they’re coal.
WHO NOTHING has walks light—you said it!—
But lighter still with a letter of credit.
“Is IT WELL and wisely done
Friend and foe alike to shun?
From all adults now I turn,
Grandsons are my sole concern.
WHAT MAN aspires to
He’ll fulfill.
If God add health and strength
Unto his will.
No TRANSIENTS, we;
However we arrived, thus
To immortality
Nature summoned us.
How DO YOU bear so well
Arrogant, elbowing youth;
By being as unbearable,
Having as little ruth.
“YOU GET ON so well with people!
How do you plant your wedge?”
I acknowledge each man’s talent
Though it set my teeth on edge.
THEY SAY, “It don’t please me a bit,”
And think they are done with it.
WHEN, NOT BY our contriving
And after gainless striving
Comes unhoped success—
Grasp quickly the largesse.
THAT BRINGS ME no distress,
God’s gift I don’t disdain;
Should I feel any less
When a foe I gain?
“To SEE YOU praised gives them no pleasure.
Of their mind, in yours, there’s not a dram.”
If I could fit into their measure
I would not be the man I am.
CURSE AND MUTTER, rip each word,
That won’t better your affair.
Solace? Solace is absurd;
Living, you must know despair.
MY GOOD DEEDS done, of them I see
Nothing, nothing, though a host.
The false thing that slipped from me,
That’s ever with me like a ghost.
“SIR, this loud derisive song
Is your enemy’s lampoon.”
“Let them sing it loud and long,
For so it will die soon.”
IF IN MY COURSE, I’d thought it worth
To wait until I got their blessing,
I’d have, today, no foot on earth.
To shine a bit, to hide their dearth,
See how they crowd me, watch them pressing!
WHO CANNOT SPARE a man a smile?
Yet some ask, “Is it worth my while?”
IF YOU’D AVOID the serenades of crows,
Out of the steeple never stick your nose.
“AND HAVE YOU had due recompense?”
Fine feathered and singing like a lark
Flew my arrow all through heaven,
And somewhere found its mark.
MAY THE NEW YEAR bring you health and grace;
And on your aches and wounds a healing salve.
On a coarse pedestal a coarse stone place;
And stones over him let a scoundrel have.
THE GOOD THING in Time’s gallery
That once was understood,
Someday another will come to see
And call it good.
“THE TARGETS of your bitter gall
Are all so distant, why?”
Whoever gave you senses, all
Spirit did deny.
“As IT TURNED OUT you came through well, no wound, no speck.”
But whoever follows me, still will risk his neck.
MY LITTLE BUZZ, my bit of fame,
Should that give you rue?
If I weren’t Goethe,
I still wouldn’t be you.
“Is YOUR QUESTION really meant?
Are you serious when you say—?”
Be unconcerned about intent;
Opinions are questions anyway.
NOT WITH MEN concern yourselves
But matter; love it.
This rapid youth approaching, he’ll
Make something of it.
In themselves the old
Are but a kind of freight;
I know that I’ll stay young
As long as I create.
Whoever would stay young
On this his mind should set;
That if no children come
To something else beget.
THE HEIGHT of a road’s perfections
Is to go right in all directions.
WOULD YOU LIVE the happy way,
Keep the past out of today.
Whatever your loss be not forlorn,
In each experience be reborn.
Ask every day what it requires,
It will refresh you with desires.
Take joy in everything you do,
What others try will then please you.
Admit no hatred to your breast;
To God you then can leave the rest.
SINCE YOU my verses shun,
Show me your creation.
In nothing it’s begun,
Its ending is negation.
So let your stiff broom scratch,
There’s nothing to repay.
On nothing it can catch,
Your nothing’s in the way.
DON’T ASK ME for perfection, ready-made;
That, my friend, is the pedant’s stock in trade.
“GIVE US A RULE to guide the people.”
In peace
Keep tidy
Your little coops.
In war
Get along
With quartered troops.
FOR GOODLY growth of heart and mind,
Lad, to this advice give heed.
Let the muse who speaks so kind,
Accompany but never lead.
ON NO MORE LAND than holds a root
An able hand will bring forth fruit.
AND IF his friends turn foul,
One needn’t care
Whether in marble crypt
Or still in open air.
Let the living only
Of this be sure
That what he gives a friend
Will long endure.
THE DOCTOR then forgive;
He and his own must live;
Though it may not please,
His interest is disease.
EACH SUCH SCOUNDREL will at last
By another be undone.
Be you good and you will walk
Pointed at by none.
GET WISE to yourself, now trot
Out of that mucky groove!
There’s more to earth than this spot—
Move!