The Breitmann Ballads

Breitmann in Politics

III.

Pardt de Virst.

The Author Asserts the Vast Intellectual Superiority of Germans to Americans.

Charles G. Leland


DERE’S a liddle fact in hishdory
vitch few hafe oondershtand,
Deutschers are, de jure,
de owners of dis land,
Und I brides mineslf oonshpeak—
barly dat I foorst make be-known,
De primordial cause dat Columbus
vas derivet from Cologne.

For ash his name vas Colon,
it fisiply does shine,
Dat his Eldern are geboren been
in Cologne on der Rhein,
Und Colonia peing a colony,
it sehr bemerkbar ist,
Dat Columbus in America
was der firster colonist.

Und ash Columbus ish a tove,
id ish wort’ de drople to mark,
Dat an bidgeon foorst tiscofer land
a-vlyin’ from de ark;
Und shtill wider—in de peginnin’,
mitout de leastest toubt,
A tofe vas vly ofer de wassers
und pring de vorldt herout.

Ash mein goot oldt teacher der Kreutzer
to me tid ofden shbeak,
De mythus of name rebeats itself—
vhitch see in his “Symbolik,”
So also de name America,
if we a liddle look,
Vas coom from der oldt king Emerich
in de Deutsche Heldenbuch.

Und id vas from dat fery Heldenbuch—
how voonderful it ron,
Dat I shdole de Song of Hildebrand,
or der Vater und der Sohn,
Und dishtripude it to Breitemann
for a reason vhitch now ish plain,
Dat dis Sagen Cyclus full-endet,
pring me round to der Hans again.

Dese laws of un-endly un-windoong ish
so teep and broad and tall,
Dat nopody boot a Deutscher
hafe a het to versteh dem at all,
Und should I write mine dinks all out,
I tont peliefe inteed,
Dat I mineslf vould versteh de half
of dis here Breitmann’s Lied.

Ash der Hegel say of his system—
dat only von mans knew,
Vot der tyfel id meant—und he couldn’t tell—
und der Jean Paul Richter, too,
Who saidt: “Gott knows I meant somedings
vhen foorst dis buch I writ,
Boot Gott only wise vot das buch means now—
for I hafe fergotten it!”

Und all of dis be-wises so
blain ash de face on your nose,
Dat der Deutscher hafe efen more intellects
dan he himself soopose,
Und his tifference mit de over-again vorldt,
as I really do soospect,
Ish dat oder volk hafe more soopose
und lesser intellect.

Yet oop-righty I confess it—
mitout ashkin’ vhy or vhence,
Dere ish also dimes vhen Amerigans
hafe shown sharp-pointet sense,
Und a fery outsigned exemple
of genius in dis line,
Vas dishblayed in dis elegdion
py Mishder Hiram Twine.


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