Classic Poem

CAPUTXIV

From the sunny golden hollows
Laughed the violet-tinted mountains.
To the slope, aloft and fearless,
Clung a hamlet, like a nest.

Thither climbing, I discovered
That the parent birds were flown,
And that none were left but young ones,
Scarcely winged as yet for flying;

Pretty boys and little maidens,
Almost hid in woollen bonnets
White and scarlet. They were playing
At a wedding in the square.

Undisturbed the game continued,
And I saw the princely lover
Kneel, incarnate in a mouse,
To the cat-king's lovely daughter.

Luckless prince! He's joined in marriage
To the fair one. Fierce and shrewish,
She has bitten and devoured him.
With his death the game is over.

Well-nigh all the day I lingered
With the children, and we chattered
Frank and friendly, and they asked me
Who I was, and my profession.

" Little friends, my native country
Is called Germany, " I answered.
" 'Tis a land where bears are plenty:
I have hunted many a bear.

" I have caught and skinned them often:
Pulled the skin the bear-ears over:
By the paws of bears have often
Been most cruelly maltreated.

" But my soul grew sick and weary
Of the daily bout and wrestle
With the unlicked cubs that flourish
In the land I love so dearly.

" So I rose and journeyed hither
In the search of better quarry;
Now I go my strength to measure
With the mighty Atta Troll.

" Him I deem a noble foeman
Worth the fighting. Ah, how often
In my home I've won a battle
Where the victory has shamed me! "

When I turned at last to leave them,
In a ring the little creatures
Danced and circled round me, singing,
" Girofflino, Girofflette! "

Then the youngest, sweet and saucy,
Stepping forward, stood before me:
Curtsied twice and thrice and four times,
And she raised her voice and sang.

" If the king should chance to meet me,
Twice I curtsy to the king.
If the queen should chance to meet me,
Then I drop her curtsies three.

" If I chance to meet the devil,
See him coming with his horn,
Curtsies two, three, four, I make him —
Girofflino, Girofflette! "

" Girofflino, Girofflette! "
The refrain was sung in chorus,
And the chorus and the dancing
Circled teasing round my legs.

As I wound towards the valley,
I could hear the echo follow
Like the sound of birds a-twitter —
" Girofflino, Girofflette! "