Joseph Victor von Scheffel

Joseph Victor von Scheffel was a German poet and novelist known for his humorous and satirical verses. He achieved widespread popularity with his narrative poem 'Der Trompeter von Säckingen,' published in 1854. His works often reflect a deep love for the landscapes and traditions of Germany. Scheffel's verse and prose are marked by their wit and joviality, resonating with readers of his time and continuing to enjoy acclaim posthumously.

February 16, 1826

April 9, 1886

German

Asphaltum.

        Bestreuet aie Häupter mit Asche,
        Verhaltet die Nasen euch bang,
        Heut giebt's bei trübfliessender Flasche
        Einen bituminösen Gesang.


Strew, strew all your heads with ashes,
    Hold your noses firmly and long;
I sing by the lightning's pale flashes
    A wild and bituminous song.

The wind of the desert is sweeping,
    Like fire by the dead Dead Sea;
There a Dervish appointment is keeping,
    With a maiden from Galilee.

'Twas ever a salty engulpher,
    In horrors excessively rich;
In Lot's time there were lots of sulphur,
And to-day it is piteous on pitch.

No washwoman comes with a bucket,
    No thirsty man comes with a mug;
For the one who would venture to suck it
    Would wish tha...

Joseph Victor von Scheffel

Granite.

            In unterirdischer Kammer
            Sprach grollend der alte Granit:
            'Da droben den wäss'rigen Jammer
            Den mach' ich jetzt länger nicht mit.'

In his lair subterranean, grumbling
    Old Granite said: 'One thing is sure,
That slopping and slippery tumbling
    Up yonder, no more I'll endure.
So wearily wallows the water
    His billows of brine o'er the land,
'Stead of prouder and fairer and better
    All is turning to slime and to sand.

'That would be a nice limestony cover,
    A sweet geological swash,
If the coat of the wide world all over
    Were one sedimentary wash.
By and by 'twill be myth and no true thing
    What were hills - what was high or was low.
The deuce take their drifting and smooth...

Joseph Victor von Scheffel

Guano Song.

        Ich weiss eine friedliche Stelle
        Im schweigenden Ocean,
        Krystallhell schäumet die Welle
        Zum Felsengestade hinan.

I know of a peaceful island
    Afar in the silent sea,
Where around the rocky highland
    Pure billows are foaming free.
In the harbour no ship is resting,
    No sailor is on the strand;
And thousands of white birds nesting,
    Are the guards of the lonely land.

Ever pondering pious questions,
    They labour right faithfully,
For blessed are their digestions,
    And flowing like poetry.
For the birds are all 'Philosophen,'
    To the principal precept inclined;
If the body be properly open,
    Then all will go well with the mind.

And the children pursue more enlightened

Joseph Victor von Scheffel

Hesiod.

        Licht glühte des Helicon Klippe
        In Mittagspurpur und Blau.


Light gleamed upon Helicon's mountain
    In the purple of mid-day and blue,
As by Aganippe's clear fountain
    A shepherd boy slept in the dew.
In seeking the lambs of his master,
    From Askra, he'd roamed through the wood,
But now all the strength of the pastor
    By the heat of the sun was subdued.

Then from sun-lighted fields of old story,
    Came Nine who were heavenly fair;
Their limbs were of beauty a glory,
    And a glory of gold was their hair.
They moved as in musical numbers,
    To the grove, Aganippe across,
And laid by the youth in his slumbers,
    Their gifts in the emerald moss.

The first a bronze style like a feather,
    Th...

Joseph Victor von Scheffel

The Basalt

    Mag der basaltene Mohrenstein
    Zum Schreck es erzählen im Lande,
    Wie er gebrodelt in Flammenschein
    Und geschwärzt entstiegen dem Brande:
    Brenn's drunten noch Jahr aus Jahr ein
    Beim Wein soll uns nicht bange sein,
    Nein, nein!
    Soll uns nicht bange sein!

                F. v. Kobell. Urzeit der Erde, p. 33.


    Es war der Basalt ein jüngerer Sohn
    Aus altvulcanischem Hause,
    Er lebte lang verkannt und gedrückt
    In erdtief verborgener Clause.

Sir basalt was a younger son
    Of that oldest race, the Vulcanian,
And he lived for ages oppressed and unknown
    In a cavern deep subterranean.

So they goaded and jeered the lover forlorn, -
    'Art thou yearning for rainy weather?
You w...

Joseph Victor von Scheffel

The Boulder.

        Einst ziert' ich, den Aether durchspähend,
        Als Spitze des Urgebirg's Stock,
        Ruhm, Hoheit und Stellung verschmähend,
        Ward ich zum erratischen Block.


Once high on the mountain-peak rising,
    In sunlight I shone like a flame;
But height and position despising,
    A wandering boulder became.

They say of a thinker's bold sallies,
    He goes where the ice will not bear;
I was beckoned to false hollow valleys,
    By snow maids, seductive and fair.

Thus driven by furious fancies,
    I went down the hill with a shout;
But atoned for my youthful romances
    By a thousand years rolling about.

Cried the Glacier, his teeth sharply showing,
    Here, my blade, you'll be polished right well,
And f...

Joseph Victor von Scheffel

The Comet.

        Ich armer Komet in dem himmlischen Feld
        Wie ist's doch so windig mit mir bestellt!
        Ich leb' in steten Sorgen,
        Mein Licht selbst muss ich borgen ...
        Ich erscheine nur von Zeit zu Zeit
        Dann muss ich wieder fort in die Dunkelheit.


I a poor comet on high, you see,
How windy and wild is my destiny!
    I live in constant sorrow,
    My light e'en I must borrow;
I only appear from time to time,
Then must wander away in gloom and grime.

By lady Sun I'm ever distracted,
And to her by power magnetic attracted;
    Yet she will not endure
    That I should rise up to her,
I must long for her from flights afar,
For, alas! I'm in fact an eccentric star.

The fixed stars all in bitter fun

Joseph Victor von Scheffel

The Ichthyosaurus

Es rauscht in den Schachtelhalmen,
Verdächtig leuchtet das Meer,
Da schwimmt mit Thränen im Auge
Ein Ichthyosaurus daher.

The rushes are strangely rustling,
    The ocean uncannily gleams,
As with tears in his eyes down gushing,
    An Ichthyosaurus swims.

He bewails the frightful corruption
    Of his age, for an awful tone
Has lately been noticed by many
    In the Lias formation shown.

'The Plesiosaurus, the elder,
    Goes roaring about on a spree;
The Plerodactylus even
    Comes flying as drunk as can be.

'The Iguanodon, the blackguard,
    Deserves to be publicly hissed,
Since he lately in open daylight
    The Ichthyosaura kissed.

'The end of the world is coming,
    Things can't go on long in this...

Joseph Victor von Scheffel

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

Joseph Victor von Scheffel

The Pile Builder. A Lacustrine Lyric.

Dichtqualmende Nebel umfeuchten
Ein Pfahlbaugerüstwerk im See
Und fern ob der Waldwildniss leuchten
Die Alpen in ewigem Schnee.

Damp smoky-like vapour is streaming
    O'er piles in the waters below.
And far o'er the forest are gleaming
    The Alps in perpetual snow.

A man on a wood block is sitting
    In furs, for the wind-draught is strong:
With a flint chip a deer-horn splitting,
    While he mournfully murmurs a song:

'See my face swollen up like the devil!
    Remark how in wind, as it spins,
The history of Europe primæval
    With rheumatics and toothache begins!

'It is true that with stone-axe employment,
    Or with celts I can hammer my way,
But no rational means of enjoyment
    Is known to the world in this d...

Joseph Victor von Scheffel

The Tazzelworm.

        Als noch ein Bergsee klar und gross
        In dieser Thäler Tiefen floss,
        Hab'ich allhier in grober Pracht
        Gelebt, geliebt und auch gedracht
                Als Tazzelwurm.


Tazzelworm is a provincial German word for a dragon. This was a song sung at the fête of hanging up the sign of the Fiery Tazzelworm at a little mountain tavern in Rehau, on the road over the Audorfen mountain meadows, in the Tyrol.


When yet a lake from mountains grand
Ran down yon valleys through the land,
Here I a great flash vulgar thing
Lived, loved, and went a-dragoning
        As Tazzelworm,

From Pentling unto Wendelstein,
Were rock and air and water mine,
I walked and flew, and kicked and rolled,
And 'stead of hay I slept on gold,
   ...

Joseph Victor von Scheffel