Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.
TranslationsFrom the German. Poetic Aphorisms
Who has it not wants hardihood,
Who has it has much trouble and care,
Who once has had it has despair.
Slam the door on the doctor’s nose.
Fiend-like is it to dwell therein,
Christ-like is it for sin to grieve,
God-like is it all sin to leave.
For the former seeth no man, and the latter no man sees.
To my Lord heartily,
To my Prince faithfully,
To my Neighbor honestly,
Die I, so die I.
Extant are; but still the doubt is, where Christianity may be.
If they have nothing else to grind, they must themselves be ground.
But, alas! it now is quenched, and only bites us, like the smoke.
Often in a wooden house a golden room we find.
Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all.
Ha! how soon they all are silent! Thus
Truth silences the liar.
They have only to bethink them that it happens so with theirs;
For so long as words, like mortals, call a fatherland their own,
They will be most highly valued where they are best and longest known.