C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Ballad of Things Known and Unknown

Translation of John Payne

FLIES in the milk I know full well;

I know men by the clothes they wear;

I know the walnut by the shell;

I know the foul sky from the fair;

I know the pear-tree by the pear;

I know the worker from the drone,

And eke the good wheat from the tare:

I know all save myself alone.

I know the pourpoint by the fell,

And by his gown I know the frère;

Master by varlet I can spell;

Nuns by the veils that hide their hair;

I know the sharper and his snare,

And fools that fat on cates have grown;

Wines by the cask I can compare:

I know all save myself alone.

I know how horse from mule to tell;

I know the load that each can bear;

I know both Beatrice and Bell;

I know the hazards, odd and pair;

I know of visions in the air;

I know the power of Peter’s throne,

And how misled Bohemians were:

I know all save myself alone.

ENVOI

Prince, I know all things; fat and spare,

Ruddy and pale, to me are known,

And Death that endeth all our care:

I know all save myself alone.