They sat and drank at tea
and spoke of love, intense.
The men who were esthetic
and the ladies with delicate senses.
The withered counselor speaks:
True love must be platonic.
The woman mentor sighs and smiles.
This strikes her as ironic.
The Canon stretches out his mouth
with Love must not be de trop
or else one’s health will suffer.
The fraulein lisps, How so?
The Countess utters wistfully,
Well, true love is a passion!
as she kindly presents to the Baron
a cup of tea, in her fashion.
There was one more place at the table,
my sweet, and you were missed.
You would have been such a picture
telling your love as bliss.
— Translated from the German of Heinrich Heine
by Terese Coe [1]
Links:
[1] https://www.ablemuse.com/v24/bio/terese-coe
[2] https://www.ablemuse.com/digital-books-24/v24/digital edition/Complete Digital Version of -/Able Muse, Print Edition (Number 24), Winter 2017