While I steal bread from the good peasant’s hearth.
Some humble charge thou wilt perhaps consent
To exercise, and think thereof no shame;
To strike out sparks, for instance, from the flint,
And with dry reeds and faggots feed the flame.”
Then Odin answered, sighing: “Ah! too plain
I feel, I’m clothed in human clay and dust:
Men live by rapine; ’tis their trade accurst;
And what one loses doth another gain.
Go, then, employ thy nimble heel!