The Aesthetic Weasel (tr. Max F. Knight)
A weasel
perched on an easel
within a patch of teasel.
But why
and how?
The Moon Cow
whispered her reply
one time:
The sopheest-
icated beest
did it just for the rhyme.
The Seagulls (tr. Karl F. Ross)
The seagulls by their looks suggest
that Emma is their name;
they wear a white and fluffy vest
and are the hunter's game.
I never shoot a seagull dead;
their life I do not take.
I like to feed them gingerbread
and bits of raisin cake.
O human, you will never fly
the way the seagulls do;
but if your name is Emma, why,
be glad they look like you.
Morgenstern (1871-1914) had very German philosophical pretensions but it’s for his rather un-German nonsense verse that he’s remembered. His (English) Wikipedia page contains his “Night Song of the Fish”, which reads the same in German and English.
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