So now, for a change, I've become an Egyptian;
But Egyptian on the basis of the Gyntish I.
To Assyria next I will bend my steps.
To begin right back at the world's creation
Would lead to nought but bewilderment.
I will go round about[1] all the Bible history;
It's secular traces I'll always be coming on;
And to look, as the saying goes, into its seams,
Lies entirely outside both my plan and my powers. [Sits upon a stone.
Now I will rest me, and patiently wait
Till the statue has sung its habitual dawn-song.
When breakfast is over, I'll climb up the pyramid;
If I've time, I'll look through its interior afterwards.
Then I'll go round the head of the Red Sea by land;
Perhaps I may hit on King Potiphar's grave.—
Next I'll turn Asiatic. In Babylon I'll seek for
The far-renowned harlots and hanging gardens,—
That's to say, the chief traces of civilisation.
Then at one bound to the ramparts of Troy.
From Troy there's a fareway by sea direct
Across to the glorious ancient Athens;—
There on the spot will I, stone by stone,
Survey the Pass that Leonidas guarded.
I will get up the works of the better philosophers,
Find the prison where Socrates suffered, a martyr;
Oh no, by-the-bye—there's a war there at present!
Well, my studies in Hellas must e'en be postponed.
[Looks at his watch.
It's really too bad, such an age as it takes
For the sun to rise. I am pressed for time.
- ↑ "Gå udenom," the phrase used by the Boyg, Act ii. sc. 7.
