"And
in war time, too, you must buy
for your wear"
"Und
wenn es Krieg gibt, müßt
ihr euch"
the
journey
overview
route
close-up
topographical
detail
[img]
caption
[img]
title from Germany,
by Streit, 1842
[img]
title from Arrowsmith, Germany, c. 1803
the
text
notes
and resources
Caput
III:16-20
view
manuscript
16
And
in war time, too, you must buy for your wear
Something lighter; those helmets might hamper
Your heads with their mediaeval weight,
When you take to your heels and scamper.
dt
text .
•
note.
•
•
17
At
Aix-la-Chapelle, on the post-house sign,
I saw once more, indignant,
The bird I detest; from its poisonous eye
It threw me a glance malignant.
dt
text .
•
the bird: the Prussian eagle; Heine had to tone
down the allusions here.
18
O
horrible bird! If into my hands
You fell for a reason,
I would pluck out your feathers and hack off your claws,
And a fig for the bogey treason!
dt
text .
•
x
19
I
would stick you up on an airy perch
Where the winds were blowing cold, then,
And summon sharpshooters in haste from the Rhine
To the shooting-match I'd hold, then.
dt
text .
•
sharpshooters: shooting clubs reflected not just
a pastime, but also a kind of sociability that was intimately
connected with the formatio of both the middle class and
a "national" consciousness.
[add images: W]
20
Oh,
a sceptre and crown I would give the man
Who that bird to earth should bring, then.
A fanfare of trumpets we'd lustily blow,
And shout "Long live the king!" then.
dt
text .
•
As Bellman points out in his annotations (17), in the
Rheinland, members of shooting clubs fired at the target
of a wooden bird in order to determine who would be "king"
of the organization.
