Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79. | | | | Katzbach, the River | | Blücher’s Ball | | Adolf Ludwig Follen (1794–1855) |
| | Translated by C. C. Felton
BY the Katzbach, by the Katzbach, ha! there was a merry dance; | |
| Wild and weird and whirling waltzes skipped ye through, ye knaves of France! | |
| For there struck the great bass-viol an old German master famed,— | |
| Marshal Forward, Prince of Wallstadt, Gebhardt Lebrecht Blücher named. | |
| Up! the Blücher hath the ball-room lighted with the cannon’s glare! | 5 |
| Spread yourselves, ye gay, green carpets, that the dancing moistens there! | |
| And his fiddle-bow at first he waxed with Goldberg and with Jauer; | |
| Whew! he ’s drawn it now full length, his play a stormy northern shower! | |
| Ha! the dance went briskly onward, tingling madness seized them all: | |
| As when howling, mighty tempests on the arms of windmills fall. | 10 |
| But the old man wants it cheery, wants a pleasant dancing chime; | |
| And with gun-stocks clearly, loudly, beats the old Teutonic time. | |
| Say, who, standing by the old man, strikes so hard the kettle-drum, | |
| And, with crushing strength of arm, down lets the thundering hammer come? | |
| Gneisenau, the gallant champion: Alemannia’s envious foes | 15 |
| Smites the mighty pair, her living double-eagle, shivering blows. | |
| And the old man scrapes the sweep-out: hapless Franks and hapless trulls! | |
| Now what dancers leads the graybeard? Ha! ha! ha! ’t is dead men’s skulls! | |
| But, as ye too much were heated in the sultriness of hell, | |
| Till ye sweated blood and brains, he made the Katzbach cool ye well. | 20 |
| From the Katzbach, while ye stiffen, hear the ancient proverb say, | |
| “Wanton varlets, venal blockheads, must with clubs be beat away!” | | | | |
|
|
