Few Grooks from Piet Hein
Apr. 5th, 2006 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riontelMISSING LINK
Man's a kind
of Missing Link,
fondly thinking
he can think.
THE STATE
Nature, our father and mother,
gave us all we have got.
The state, our elder brother,
swipes the lot.
THE ROAD TO WISDOM
The road to wisdom? -- Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.
WHAT PEOPLE MAY THINK
Some people cower
and wince and shrink,
owing to fear of
what people may think.
There is one answer
to worries like these:
people may think
what the devil they please.
PRAYER
to the sun above the clouds.
Sun that givest all things birth,
shine on everything on earth!
If that's too much to demand,
shine at least on this our land.
If even that's too much for thee,
shine at any rate on me.
MANKIND
Men, said the Devil,
are good to their brothers:
they don’t want to mend
their own ways, but each other's.
A TOAST
The soul may be a mere pretense,
the mind makes very little sense.
So let us value the appeal
of that which we can taste and feel.
AN ETHICAL GROOK
I see
and I hear
and I speak no evil;
I carry
no malice
within my breast;
yet quite without
wishing
a man to the Devil
one may be
permitted
to hope for the best.
LILAC TIME
The lilacs are flowering, sweet and sublime,
with a perfume that goes to the head;
and lovers meander in prose and rhyme,
trying to say --
for the thousandth time --
what's easier done than said.
DEFENCE WANTED
In International
Consequences
the players must reckon
to reap what they've sown.
We have a defence
against other defences,
but what's to defend us
against our own?
A PSYCHOLOGICAL TIP
Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No -- not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping.
IT ISN'T ENOUGH
One paramount truth
our society smothers
in petty concern
with position and pelf:
It isn't enough
to exasperate others;
you've got to remember
to gladden yourself.
FREEDOM
Freedom means
you're free to do
just whatever
pleases you;
- if, of course
that is to say,
what you please
is what you may.
THE EGOCENTRICS
People are self-centered
to a nauseous degree.
They will keep on about themselves
while I'm explaining me.
Man's a kind
of Missing Link,
fondly thinking
he can think.
THE STATE
Nature, our father and mother,
gave us all we have got.
The state, our elder brother,
swipes the lot.
THE ROAD TO WISDOM
The road to wisdom? -- Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.
WHAT PEOPLE MAY THINK
Some people cower
and wince and shrink,
owing to fear of
what people may think.
There is one answer
to worries like these:
people may think
what the devil they please.
PRAYER
to the sun above the clouds.
Sun that givest all things birth,
shine on everything on earth!
If that's too much to demand,
shine at least on this our land.
If even that's too much for thee,
shine at any rate on me.
MANKIND
Men, said the Devil,
are good to their brothers:
they don’t want to mend
their own ways, but each other's.
A TOAST
The soul may be a mere pretense,
the mind makes very little sense.
So let us value the appeal
of that which we can taste and feel.
AN ETHICAL GROOK
I see
and I hear
and I speak no evil;
I carry
no malice
within my breast;
yet quite without
wishing
a man to the Devil
one may be
permitted
to hope for the best.
LILAC TIME
The lilacs are flowering, sweet and sublime,
with a perfume that goes to the head;
and lovers meander in prose and rhyme,
trying to say --
for the thousandth time --
what's easier done than said.
DEFENCE WANTED
In International
Consequences
the players must reckon
to reap what they've sown.
We have a defence
against other defences,
but what's to defend us
against our own?
A PSYCHOLOGICAL TIP
Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No -- not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping.
IT ISN'T ENOUGH
One paramount truth
our society smothers
in petty concern
with position and pelf:
It isn't enough
to exasperate others;
you've got to remember
to gladden yourself.
FREEDOM
Freedom means
you're free to do
just whatever
pleases you;
- if, of course
that is to say,
what you please
is what you may.
THE EGOCENTRICS
People are self-centered
to a nauseous degree.
They will keep on about themselves
while I'm explaining me.
