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then shall your lips, fresh and balmy,
- to my smiling, passion whisper!
ANITRA [lies down at his feet].
- All thy words are sweet as singing,
- though I understand but little.
- Master, tell me, can thy daughter
- catch a soul by listening?
PEER
- Soul, and spirit's light and knowledge,
- all in good time you shall have them.
- When in east, on rosy streamers
- golden types print: Here is day,-
- then, my child, I'll give you lessons;
- you'll be well brought-up, no fear.
- But, 'mid night's delicious stillness,
- it were stupid if I should,
- with a threadbare wisdom's remnants,
- play the part of pedagogue.-
- And the soul, moreover, is not,
- looked at properly, the main thing.
- It's the heart that really matters.
ANITRA
- Speak, O Master! When thou speakest,
- I see gleams, as though of opals!
PEER
- Wisdom in extremes is folly;
- coward blossoms into tyrant;
- truth, when carried to excess,
- ends in wisdom written backwards.
- Ay, my daughter, I'm forsworn
- as a dog if there are not
