Alone in the kitchen, in grease laden steam,

I pause for a moment—a moment to dream:

For even a dishwasher thinks of a day,

Wherein there’ll be leisure for rest and for play.

And now that I pause, o’er the transom there floats,

A strain of the Traumerei’s soul stirring notes.

Engulfed in a blending of sorrow and glee,

I wonder that music can reach even me.

But now I am thinking; my brain has been stirred.

The voice of a master, the lowly has heard.