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Breitmann’s Going To Church
by
Mit moss-grown shticks und bark-thong
De plessed cross ve made,
Und put it vhere de soldier’s head
Towards Germany vas laid.
Dat grave is lost mit dead leafs,
De cross is goned afay:
Boot Gott will find der reiter
Oopon de Youngest Day.
Und dinkin of de fightin,
Und dinkin of de dead,
Und dinkin of de organ,
To Nashville, Breitmann led
Boot long dat rough oldt Hanserl
Vas earnsthaft, grim und kalt,
Shtill dinkin o’er de heart’s friend,
He’d left im gruenen wald.[5]
De verses of dis boem
In Heidelberg I write;
De night is dark around me,
De shtars apove are bright.
Studenten in den Gassen[6]
Make singen many a song;
Ach Faderland! – wie bist du weit!
Ach Zeit! – wie bist du lang![7]
FOOTNOTE 1.
Wurst, literally sausage, is used by German students to signify indiffer ence. When a sausage is on the table, and one is asked with mock courtesy which part he prefers, he naturally replies – “Why, it is all sausage to me.” I have heard an elderly man in New England reply to the query whether he would have “black meat or breast” – “Any part, thank’ee – I guess it’s all turkey.” There are, of course, divers ancient and quaint puns in Pennsylvania, on such a word as wurst. Thus it is said that a northern pedlar, in being served with some sausage of an inferior quality, was asked again if he would have some of the wurst. Not understanding the word, and construing it as a slight, he replied to his hostess – “No, thank you, marm, this is quite bad enough.” The literal meaning of this line, which is borrowed from Scheffel’s poem of Perkéo, is “indifferent, and equal, to me.”
FOOTNOTE 2.
It was, I believe, Ragnar Lodbrog who, in his Death Song, spoke, about as intelligently and clearly as Herr Breitmann, of a mass of weapons.
FOOTNOTE 3. Is true art-enjoyment.
FOOTNOTE 4. Where art thou Breitmann? – Believe it.
FOOTNOTE 5. In the green wood.
FOOTNOTE 6. Students in the streets.
FOOTNOTE 7.
Oh Fatherland! – how thou art far!
Oh Time! – how art thou long!