Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Dispraise

"People are never more ready to believe you as when you say things in dispraise of yourself; and you are never so much annoyed as when they take you at your word."
Somerset Maugham
Posted by Unknown at 4:52 AM

5 comments:

  1. epitimaios aristoxenosDecember 14, 2010 at 8:17 PM

    One of the few really nice poems of Wilhelm Busch. I would love to make a good translation of it, but I am not able to do sp. Maybe reading it someone does want to do this challenging job

    Die Selbstkritik hat viel für sich.

    Gesetzt den Fall, ich tadle mich...

    ...so hab' ich erstens den Gewinn,
    Dass ich so hübsch bescheiden bin;

    Zum zweiten denken sich die Leut,
    Der Mann ist lauter Redlichkeit;
    Auch schnapp' ich drittens diesen Bissen
    Vorweg den andern Kritiküssen;

    Und viertens hoff' ich außerdem
    Auf Widerspruch, der mir genehm.
    So kommt es denn zuletzt heraus,
    Dass ich ein ganz famoses Haus.

    ReplyDelete
  2. csDecember 15, 2010 at 9:16 AM

    Bravo epitimaios! Good to see you back again here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. epitimaios aristoxenosDecember 15, 2010 at 10:21 PM

    How wonderful is self-critic!
    Imagine just I blame myself...
    A first anointment makes me big
    since modesty will be my salve.

    And secondly all people think
    this candid boy is without jink.
    No smart arse thirdly will have dared
    to say again what I declaired.

    Fourthly this can make me hope
    that someone will oppose my lope!
    So at the end the obvious scoop
    is that I'm really very cute.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownDecember 15, 2010 at 10:52 PM

    Marvelous!

    ReplyDelete
  5. epitimaios aristoxenosDecember 16, 2010 at 1:06 AM

    Thank you, dear Michael, you make me feel greatly honoured

    ReplyDelete

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