A werewolf one night
left his wife and child to see
a village schoolmaster's grave
and begged him: "Please decline me."
The schoolmaster raised himself
and sitting on his monument said
to the werewolf, who crossed his paws
respectfully before the dead;
'"Der Werewolf" is the nominative,
"Des Werswolfs," the genitive must be,
"Dem Wemwolf" is the dative,
and "Den Wenwolf" is accusative, you see.'
Flattered, the Werewolf rolled his eyes,
towards the schoolmaster's ghost.
Then, "What of the singular and plural?"
he asked his learned host.
But the master replied there was no plural.
Though werewolves might gather in packs,
The prefix "wer", or "who," he had to say,
in German a plural lacks.
What of his family, then? There was no answer.
With tears the werewolf's eyes burned,
but he thanked the schoolmaster's spirit,
and to his family he returned.
___________________
A contest entry
- Translate this by whitewitch.
300 points, ended December 15, 2006, 5 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 8 of 8
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Interesting write. The imagery is wonderful. Such a sad tale. Congratulations on gold. Loved it.
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Decline nacht
The pundit grasped a golden cross
and to the werewolf said:
Die, Werewolf, now thou art declined
and, werewolf, please stay dead.
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Excellent - and so different
I am quite pleased to see a nice gold trophy on what I would call a brilliantly creative piece. This is just good work all the way around. Not certain as to the rules of the contest, but this piece stands alone with a unique definition. Excellent work. ~Pam
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I'm slightly horrified to see that you won gold over the 16 year old German schoolgirl who solved this riddle and provided the extremely clever key to this problem. I just assumed she would get credit for the intellectual lightbulb she provided behind the translation, no matter who came after her, injecting their rhyme. I'm really ashamed I even commented on this poem at all.
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curious
quite cute, i enjoyed the imagery. -
This is a clever poem, which didn't make a frightening werewolf but a more interesting one. I read this as a poem showing the difference between nature (the wolf) and education (the teacher). The use of language was very interesting.
Thanks for your comment
All the best
Pozo
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very well done. I too thought that he must be sitting on a gravestone, not a sign or shield, though my German is poor.
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Best so far
This is a diffucult task, but your entry is surely the best so far. It keeps some sort of rhyme and also expresses the paradoxes of the poem better than I would have thought possible. There are still a few days of the contest to go, to be sure, but this entry is the most impressive. So far, the contest has provoked some interesting discussions, for which I, and I am sure that I speak for others who have dropped iun on this site, am grateful. At least we have shown that Allpoetry is capable of attracting a few intelligent people, not merely infantilists, coprophiles, "cutters" and other debased and generally contemptible weirdos!
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