Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 4).djvu/213

 So now, for a change, I've become an Egyptian; But Egyptian on the basis of the Gyntish I. To Assyria next I will bend my steps. To begin right back at the world's creation Would lead to nought but bewilderment. I will go round about all the Bible history; It's secular traces I'll always be coming on; And to look, as the saying goes, into its seams, Lies entirely outside both my plan and my powers. [Sits upon a stone. Now I will rest me, and patiently wait Till the statue has sung its habitual dawn-song. When breakfast is over, I'll climb up the pyramid; If I've time, I'll look through its interior afterwards. Then I'll go round the head of the Red Sea by land; Perhaps I may hit on King Potiphar's grave.— Next I'll turn Asiatic. In Babylon I'll seek for The far-renowned harlots and hanging gardens,— That's to say, the chief traces of civilisation. Then at one bound to the ramparts of Troy. From Troy there's a fareway by sea direct Across to the glorious ancient Athens;— There on the spot will I, stone by stone, Survey the Pass that Leonidas guarded. I will get up the works of the better philosophers, Find the prison where Socrates suffered, a martyr; Oh no, by-the-bye—there's a war there at present! Well, my studies in Hellas must e'en be postponed.

[Looks at his watch.

It's really too bad, such an age as it takes For the sun to rise. I am pressed for time.