| "Das Knie"
Christian Morgenstern was a German poet, who lived from 1871-1914. He wrote rather odd poems, and I mentioned one of them to Tormod at the mini-HCNA 05. He asked me to post it. The original German, and the translation are taken from The Gallows Songs, Cristian Morgenstern's Galgenlieder, a Selection, editted by Max Knight, Universitiy of California Press, 1963. My original introduction to this poem was a different translation in a footnote in another book, which I cannot remember. It was that translation I quoted to Tormod. If I can remember what book it was in, I'll edit this post to add it.
Ein Knie geht einsam durch die Welt.
Es ist ein Knie, sonst nichts!
Es ist kein Baum! Es ist kein Zelt!
Es ist ein Knie, sonst nichts.
Im Kriege war einmal ein Mann
erschossen um und um.
Das Knie allein blieb unverletzt--
als waer's ein Heiligtum.
Seitdem geht's einsam durch die Welt.
Es ist ein Knie, sonst nichts.
Es ist kein Baum. Es ist kein Zelt.
Es ist ein Knie, sonst nichts.
or
On Earth there roams a lonely knee.
It's just a knee, that's all.
It's not a tent, it's not a tree,
it's just a knee, that's all.
In battle, long ago, a man
was riddled through and through.
The knee alone escaped unhurt
as if it were taboo.
Since then there roams a lonely knee.
It's just a knee, that's all.
It's not a tent, it's not a tree,
it's just a knee, that's all.  | 
Re: "Das Knie" 
Brevity. ~Roger Thelonious George 
