OPEN TABLE. - Poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

MANY a guest I'd see to-day,

Met to taste my dishes!
Food in plenty is prepar'd,

Birds, and game, and fishes.
Invitations all have had,

All proposed attending.
Johnny, go and look around!

Are they hither wending?

Pretty girls I hope to see,

Dear and guileless misses,
Ignorant how sweet it is

Giving tender kisses.
Invitations all have had,

All proposed attending.
Johnny, go and look around!

Are they hither wending?

Women also I expect,

Loving tow'rd their spouses,
Whose rude grumbling in their breasts

Greater love but rouses.
Invitations they've had too,

All proposed attending!
Johnny, go and look around!

Are they hither wending?

I've too ask'd young gentlemen,

Who are far from haughty,
And whose purses are well-stock'd,

Well-behaved, not haughty.
These especially I ask'd,

All proposed attending.
Johnny, go and look around!

Are they hither wending?

Men I summon'd with respect,

Who their own wives treasure;
Who in ogling other Fair

Never take a pleasure.
To my greetings they replied,

All proposed attending.
Johnny, go and look around!

Are they hither wending?

Then to make our joy complete,

Poets I invited,
Who love other's songs far more

Than what they've indited.
All acceded to my wish,

All proposed attending.
Johnny, go and look around!

Are they hither wending?

Not a single one appears,

None seem this way posting.
All the soup boils fast away,

Joints are over-roasting.
Ah, I fear that we have been

Rather too unbending!
Johnny, tell me what you think!

None are hither wending.

Johnny, run and quickly bring

Other guests to me now!
Each arriving as he is--

That's the plan, I see now.
In the town at once 'tis known,

Every one's commending.
Johnny, open all the doors:

All are hither wending!

1815.*