"Christian Morning-star." What a lovely name.
He wrote this poem:
Korf erfindet eine Art von Witzen,
die erst viele Stunden später
wirken.
Jeder hört sie an mit langer Weile.
Doch als hätt' ein Zunder still
geglommen,
wird man nachts im Bette plötzlich
munter,
selig lächelnd wie ein satter
Säugling.
It is worth learning German just for that.
In the meantime, here is an echo in English.
Korf discovers a new
kind of humor
whose effect comes only
hours later;
you hear it first in
bored incomprehension.
And yet as had a
spark lain unsuspected,
one wakes awake in bed in sudden gladness,
softly smiling like a
breast-fed baby.
~
Mr. Morgenstern discovered
many magical animals, such as : the Mondschaf
(lateinisch ‘Lun-ovis’; moonlamb, in
the vernacular), and her lunar relative, the Mondberg-uhu; the mysterious Turtelunke
(not yet found in nature -- only a suggestion, to the Maker of things); and the
untranslatable Nasobēm. And we, to entertain him in the
afterlife, have reported on a discovery of our own … snow bunnies!
~
Ich bin das ehrlich’ Nasobēm :
welch’ Märchen wär’
mir angenehm?
Schon doch -- ein
zaubervolles !
Hör zu, Maria, zärtliche Vorschläge …
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This too, our poet wrote:
Palmström liebt sich in Geräusch zu
wickeln,
teils zur Abwehr wider fremde
Lärme,
teils um sich vor drittem Ohr zu
schirmen.
Und so läßt er sich um seine Zimmer
Wasserröhren legen, welche brausen.
Und ergeht sich, so behütet, oft in
stundenlangen Monologen, stunden-
langen Monologen, gleich dem Redner
von Athen, der in die Brandung brüllte,
gleich Demosthenes am Strand des Meeres.
And we as one, with whom a lamb were placed in trust,
return it, wrapped in bluest blanket:
Palmström loves to wrap himself in rustles --
half, himself to spare annoying noises;
half to shield himself from
overhearing.
With water-courses he outfits his chamber,
purling ever, soft, with sough and simmer;
and thus at ease, declaims, amidst the murmur
monologues, full loud, the wind
addressing;
hour on hour he strides, soliliquizing:
e’en as the Dean, of Attic rhetorick:
e’en Demósthenes on sea-strand, sounding.
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