Wine saith: "To the deaf thou'rt singing,
Those vain self-laudations flinging!
Otherwhere thou hast been shown!
Patent 'tis to all the races
How impure and foul thy place is;
We believe what we have known!
"Thou of things the scum and rotten
Sewer, where ordures best forgotten
And unmentioned still descend!
Filth and garbage, stench and poison.
Thou dost bear in fetid foison!
Here I stop lest words offend."
Water rose, the foe invaded,
In her own defence upbraided
Wine for his invective base:
"Now at last we've drawn the curtain!
Who, what god thou art is certain
From thy oracle's disgrace.
"This thine impudent oration
Hurts not me; 'tis desecration
To a god, and fouls his tongue!
At the utmost at nine paces
Can I suffer filthy places,
Fling far from me dirt and dung!"
Wine saith: "This repudiation
Of my well-weighed imputation
Doth not clear thyself of crime!
Many a man and oft who swallowed
Thine infected potion, followed
After death in one day's time."
Hearing this, in stupefaction
Water stood; no words, no action,
Now restrained her sobs of woe.
Wine exclaims, "Why art thou dumb then?
Without answer? Is it come then
To thy complete overthrow?"
I who heard the whole contention
Now declare my song's intention,
And to all the world proclaim:
They who mix these things shall ever
Henceforth be accursed, and never
In Christ's kingdom portion claim.
The same precept, "Keep wine and water apart," is conveyed at the close of a lyric distinguished in other respects for the brutal passion of its drunken fervour. I have not succeeded in catching the rollicking swing of the original verse; and I may observe that the last two stanzas seem to form a separate song, although their metre is the same as that of the first four.