The Megatherium.

        Was hängt denn dort bewegungslos
        Zum Knaul zusammgeballt
        So riesenfaul und riesengross
        Im Ururururwald?
        Dreifach so wuchtig als ein Stier,
        Dreifach so schwer und dumm -
        Ein Kletterthier, ein Krallenthier:
        Das Megatherium!


Vide Cuvier, Ossemens fossiles, v. 1, p. 174. tab. 61. The Megatherium was a gigantic sloth.


What hangs there like a frozen pig,
    Or knot all twisted rude?
So giant lazy, giant big,
    In the prim - rim - æval wood?
Thrice bigger than a bull - at least
    Thrice heavier, and dumb -
A climbing and a clawing beast,
    The Megatherium!

All dreamily it opes its jaws
    And glares so lazily,
Then digs with might its cutting claws
    In the Embahuba tree.
It eats the fruit, it eats the leaf,
    Soft, happy, grunting 'Ai!'
And when they're gone, as if with grief,
    Occasionally goes 'Wai!'

But from the tree it never crawls.
    It knows a shorter way;
For like a gourd adown it falls,
    And will not hence away.
With owly eyes awhile it hums,
    Smiles wondrously and deep;
For after good long feeding comes
    Its main hard work - to sleep.

Oh, sceptic mortal - brassy, bold,
    Wilt thou my words deride?
Go to Madrid and there behold
    His bones all petrified.
And if thou hast before them stood,
    Remember these my rhymes.
Such laziness held only good
    In antdiluvian times.

Thou art no Megatherium,
    Thy soul has aims divine,
Then mind your studies, all and some,
    And eat not like a swine.
Use well your time - 'tis money worth,
    Yea, work till death you see.
And should you yield to sloth and mirth,
Do it not sloath - somely![4]

Translated From The German Of Joseph Victor Scheffel By Charles G. Leland.

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[Footnote 4: In the original

    Und steckst Du doch im faulen Pelz
    So fall mit Vorsicht ab.

The Gasthaus zum Faulen Pelz is a beerhouse in Heidelberg.]

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