| |
| GIVE me welcome all with cheer! | |
| Harken, what my tidings fair shall be. | |
| All that you were wont to hear | |
| Is a very trifle: now ask me. | |
| But give me my reward! | 5 |
| Then, if that be good, | |
| I shall tell what you will hear with joyful mood. | |
| Take care, and honours fit accord! | |
| |
| To German ladies I shall say | |
| Such happy tidings as will please them well, | 10 |
| And bring the world beneath their sway; | |
| For no great thanks my tale I’ll tell. | |
| Ah, what should I ask? | |
| They’re too great, I find. | |
| So I am but modest, pray that they be kind: | 15 |
| Gracious welcome be their task. | |
| |
| In many countries I have fared, | |
| I have seen the best with eager eye. | |
| Woe betide me if I dared | |
| Force my heart that it should ever try | 20 |
| Other lands to love | |
| For their foreign ways. | |
| Should I lie, what profit were false praise? | |
| German manners all above! | |
| |
| From the Elbe to the Rhine, | 25 |
| Back unto Hungarian ground, | |
| There, I wot, the noblest shine | |
| That upon the world are found. | |
| If looks and bearings fair | |
| My eyes can judge aright, | 30 |
| Any woman here surpasses in my sight | |
| High-born ladies fine elsewhere! | |
| |
| German men are nobly bred, | |
| Angels are the women of the land. | |
| He who chides them is misled. | 35 |
| Other truth I cannot understand. | |
| He who on his way | |
| Seeketh virtue, loving chaste, | |
| Come into our land, for there is joy to waste. | |
| May I live there long, I pray! | 40 |
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