Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.

Usédom, the Island

Greediness Punished

By Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866)

IT was the cloister Grabow, in the land of Usédom,

For years had God’s free goodness to fill its larder come:

They might have been contented!

Along the shore came swimming, to give the monks good cheer,

Who dwelt within the cloister, two fishes every year:

They might have been contented!

Two sturgeons,—two great fat ones,—and then this law was set,

That one of them should yearly be taken in a net:

They might have been contented!

The other swam away, then, until next year came round,

Then, with a new companion, he punctually was found:

They might have been contented!

So then, again, they caught one, and served him in the dish,

And regularly caught they, year in, year out, a fish:

They might have been contented!

One year, the time appointed two such great fishes brought,

The question was a hard one, which of them should be caught:

They might have been contented!

They caught them both together, but every greedy wight

Just spoiled his stomach by it,—it served the gluttons right:

They might have been contented!

This was the least of sorrows,—hear how the cup ran o’er!

Henceforward, to the cloister no fish came swimming more:

They might have been contented!

So long had God supplied them of his free grace alone,

That, now it is denied them, the fault is all their own:

They might have been contented!