Friday is Poet's Day

Well, as I've learned that quite a few amongst those inhabitants of the United (?) Kingdom who still have a job do think of Poet's Day as 'Piss off early, tomorrow's Saturday', I decided to post this on Friday night.

Of Petrarca I was thinking, of Hafis and - ha ha, of course: Dafydd ap Gwilym, but although I tried (relatively) hard I did not (yet) find in English what I love in German.

So help me Ringelnatz!

And if it were to prove that not only some caterpillars, but also some ants are pretty clever.

Enjoy:

In Hamburg lebten zwei Ameisen,
Die wollten nach Australien reisen.
Bei Altona auf der Chaussee,
Da taten ihnen die Beine weh,
Und da verzichteten sie weise
Dann auf den letzten Teil der Reise.
Joachim Ringelnatz

And here's the glorious free translation by John Brough which I found at Brian Cole's Brindin Press website.

Two ants who lived in London planned
To walk to Melbourne overland,
But, footsore in Southampton Row
when there were still some miles to go,
They thought it wise to not extend
The Journey to the bitter end.