Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79. | | | | Usédom, the Island | | Greediness Punished | | Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866) |
| | Translated by C. T. Brooks
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! | |
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| Along the shore came swimming, to give the monks good cheer, | |
| Who dwelt within the cloister, two fishes every year: | 5 |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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! | 15 |
| |
| 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: | 20 |
| 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, | 25 |
| That, now it is denied them, the fault is all their own: | |
| They might have been contented! | | | | |
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