The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #164698   Message #3944693
Posted By: keberoxu
17-Aug-18 - 06:22 PM
Thread Name: in German: Die Katzen und der Hausherr
Subject: RE: in German: Die Katzen und der Hausherr
Well, I got all excited just now, because
my online search pulled up an English translation.
Sadly, many verses are missing, darned if I know why.
I'll submit what little there is.

The translation begins with Verse Two:

Men and beasts were wrapt in slumber,
E'en the house's prophet slept,
When of long-tailed guests a number
From the neighbor's house-top crept.

And then, it skips to Verse Six (!)

Hinz, of Murner's spouse the father,
Beat with cunning skill the time;
Two old tom-cats, rakish rather,
Puffed and blowed to keep in chime.

In the dance then wildly flitting,
Such a din and noise they make,
Hissing, howling, scratching, spitting,
Till the landlord they awake.

With a cudgel armed he dashes
Headlong in the gloomy hall,
Strikes around, the mirror smashes,
While a dozen vases fall.

Then o'er scattered fragments stumbling,
Fells the timepiece with his arm,
Breaks two rows of teeth in tumbling:
Blindfold zeal can do but harm.

-- from The Poetry of Germany: Translated into English Verse, with the original text on the opposite page, by Alfred Baskerville, London: Williams & Norgate, 1858.