Page:Tyrolean Elegies (c 1932).pdf/20

 Oh you powers, topsy turvy powers, You who would lead nations by a rope, While you’re helpless, with a team of horses Without reins, to cope.

Without driver, without reins, sheer darkness, At my side a gulf that steeper grows, Thus alone I galloped in the carriage As the Alp wind blows.

Should I fear to trust my Fate and body To a team of horses, run-away? Wha can happen to an Austrian subject That is worse, I pray?

In my head but coolest resignation, ’twixt my lips a smoking hot cigar, Faster than a Russian Czar I landed At the post, not far.

As a delinquent most examplary Then without protection I have dined, Ere the guards with skinned and bloody noses Limped in from behind.

I slept well in Weidring, but the gendarmes Spent a most uncomfortable night, Rubbed with alcohol their backs and noses, Easing thus their plight.

And here ends my lengthy, truthful epic, To which I have added not a drop, To this day in Weidring you can hear it, From Postmaster Dahlrupp.