Im See

Im See                        In The Lake

Heute ist das Wetter warm,          Today the weather is warm,
heute kann's nicht schaden,         today it can't hurt,
schnell hinunter an den See,        quickly down to the lake,
heute gehn wir baden!               Today we go swimming!

Eins, zwei, drei -- die Hosen aus,  One, two, three -- pants off,
Stiefel, Wams und Wäsche!           Boots, doublet and underwear!
Und dann -- plumps ins Wasser rein! And then -- plop into the water
Gerade wie die Frösche!             Just like the frogs!

Und der schönste Sonnenschein       And the most beautiful sunshine
brennt uns nach dem Bade            burns us after the bath,
Brust und Buckel knusperbraun,      breast and hump crispy brown,
braun wie Schokolade!               brown like chocolate!

-- Adolf Holst (1867 - 1945), German educator, author, and publisher of children's books, quoted in German How To Speak And Write It by Joseph Rosenberg (1960)

[Early in my 5 years of high school German, the first poem I memorized auf Deutsch was the above, ca. ~1974.  I still remembered good chunks, but not nearly all of it.]