Classic Poem

Als ich auf der Reise zufällig

By chance I met on my journey
My dear one's family;
Sister and mother and father;
Smiling, they greeted me.

How was my health — and spirits?
They? . . . Oh, the same old tale.
I hadn't changed much, they told me,
Only a trifle pale.

I asked about aunts and cousins
With interest (save the mark!)
And other such pleasing people,
And the dog, with his gentle bark.

How was my married sweetheart
Whom they had left behind?
And smilingly they told me
That she would soon be confined.

I coughed congratulations,
And, stammering wretchedly,
I asked them all to greet her
A thousand times for me.

Then spoke the little sister:
" That puppy pet of mine
Grew up so big and horrid,
We drowned him in the Rhine. "

The child resembles her sister,
Sometimes remarkably so —
Those eyes and that way of laughing
That brought me so much woe.