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ERGO BIBAMUS! - 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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ERGO BIBAMUS!

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    • FOR a praiseworthy object we’re now gather’d here,
    • So, brethren, sing: Ergo bibamus!
    • Tho’ talk may be hush’d, yet the glasses ring clear,
    • Remember then: Ergo bibamus!
    • In truth ’tis an old, ’tis an excellent word,
    • With its sound so befitting each bosom is stirr’d,
    • And an echo the festal hall filling is heard,
    • A glorious Ergo bibamus!
    • I saw mine own love in her beauty so rare,
    • And bethought me of: Ergo bibamus!
    • So I gently approach’d, and she let me stand there,
    • While I help’d myself, thinking: Bibamus!
    • And when she’s appeas’d, and will clasp you and kiss;
    • Or when those embraces and kisses ye miss,
    • Take refuge, till found is some worthier bliss,
    • In the comforting Ergo bibamus!
    • I am call’d by my fate far away from each friend;
    • Ye lov’d ones, then: Ergo bibamus!
    • With wallet light-laden from hence I must wend,
    • So double our Ergo bibamus!
    • Whate’er to his treasures the niggard may add,
    • Yet regard for the joyous will ever be had,
    • For gladness lends ever its charms to the glad,
    • So, brethren, sing: Ergo bibamus!
    • And what shall we say of to-day as it flies?
    • I thought but of: Ergo Bibamus!
    • ’Tis one of those truly that seldom arise,
    • So again and again sing: Bibamus!
    • For joy through a wide-open portal it guides,
    • Bright glitter the clouds, as the curtain divides,
    • And a form, a divine one, to greet us in glides,
    • While we thunder our: Ergo bibamus!