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THE RECKONING. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe’s Works, vol. 1 (Poems) [1885]

Edition used:

Goethe’s Works, illustrated by the best German artists, 5 vols. (Philadelphia: G. Barrie, 1885). Vol. 1.

Part of: Goethe’s Works, 5 vols.

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THE RECKONING.

  • Leader.
  • LET no cares now hover o’er us!
  • Let the wine unsparing run!
  • Wilt thou swell our merry chorus?
  • Hast thou all thy duty done?
    • Solo.
    • Two young folks—the thing is curious—
    • Lov’d each other; yesterday
    • Both quite mild, to-day quite furious,
    • Next day, quite the deuce to pay!
    • If her neck she there was stooping,
    • He must here needs pull his hair.
    • I reviv’d their spirits drooping,
    • And they’re now a happy pair.
  • Chorus.
  • Surely we for wine may languish!
  • Let the bumper then go round!
  • For all sighs and groans of anguish
  • Thou to-day in joy hast drown’d.
  • Solo.
  • Why, young orphan, all this wailing?
  • “Would to heaven that I were dead!
  • For my guardian’s craft prevailing
  • Soon will make me beg my bread.”
  • Knowing well the rascal genus,
  • Into court I dragg’d the knave;
  • Fair the judges were between us,
  • And the maiden’s wealth did save.
  • Chorus.
  • Surely we for wine may languish!
  • Let the bumper then go round!
  • For all sighs and groans of anguish
  • Thou to-day in joy hast drown’d.
  • Solo.
  • To a little fellow, quiet,
  • Unpretending and subdu’d,
  • Has a big clown, running riot,
  • Been to-day extremely rude.
  • I bethought me of my duty,
  • And my courage swell’d apace,
  • So I spoil’d the rascal’s beauty,
  • Slashing him across the face.
  • Chorus.
  • Surely we for wine may languish!
  • Let the bumper then go round!
  • For all sighs and groans of anguish
  • Thou to-day in joy hast drown’d.
  • Solo.
  • Brief must be my explanation,
  • For I really have done nought.
  • Free from trouble and vexation,
  • I a landlord’s business bought.
  • There I’ve done, with all due ardor,
  • All that duty order’d me;
  • Each one ask’d me for the larder,
  • And there was no scarcity.
  • Chorus.
  • Surely we for wine may languish!
  • Let the bumper then go round!
  • For all sighs and groans of anguish
  • Thou to-day in joy hast drown’d.
  • Leader.
  • Each should thus make proclamation
  • Of what he did well to-day!
  • That’s the match whose conflagration
  • Should inflame our tuneful lay.
  • Let it be our precept ever
  • To admit no waverer here!
  • For to act the good endeavor,
  • None but rascals meek appear.
  • Chorus.
  • Surely we for wine may languish!
  • Let the bumper then go round!
  • For all sighs and groans of anguish
  • We have now in rapture drown’d.
  • Trio.
  • Let each merry minstrel enter,
  • He’s right welcome to our hall!
  • ’Tis but with the self-tormentor
  • That we are not liberal;
  • For we fear that his caprices,
  • That his eyebrows dark and sad,
  • That his grief that never ceases
  • Hide an empty heart, or bad.
  • Chorus.
  • No one now for wine shall languish!
  • Here no minstrel shall be found,
  • Who all sighs and groans of anguish,
  • Has not first in rapture drown’d!