THE LEAN ONE
It were all one to me if a kitchen-maid
you had half-way divested of something else.
What sort of stuff is this half-way jargon,
saving your presence? Who, think you, would care
to throw away dearly-bought fuel in times
like these on such spiritless rubbish as this?
There now, don’t be enraged; ’twas your sins that scoffed at;
and excuse my speaking my mind so bluntly.—
Come, my dearest friend, banish this stuff from your head,
and get used to the thought of the casting-ladle.
What would you gain if I lodged you and boarded you?
Consider; I know you’re a sensible man.
Well, you’d keep your memory; that’s so far true;—
but the retrospect o’er recollection’s domain
would be, both for heart and for intellect,
what the Swedes call “Mighty poor sport” indeed.
You have nothing either to howl or to smile about,
no cause for rejoicing nor yet for despair,
nothing to make you feel hot or cold;
only a sort of a something to fret over.