Littell's Living Age/Volume 135/Issue 1741/"Mein Kind, wir waren Kinder"

by Heinrich Heine

"MEIN KIND, WIR WAREN KINDER."

My bairn, we aince were bairnies,
     Wee gamesome bairnies twa;
We creepit into the hen-house,
     An' jookit under the straw.

We craw'd like the cock-a-doodles -
     An' to hear us the passing folk
At ilk "kickericoo" wad fancy,
     It-just was the bantam cock.

The kists-in the yaird we papered,
     And made them bonnie and crouse,
An' we dwalt there, we twa thegither -
     The laird had nae brawer house!

An' aften the neebor's auld baudrons
     Look'd in for a mornin' Ca',
We made her our bobs and curtsies,
     And snoovelin' speeches an' a'.

"An' how hae ye been? an' how are ye?"
     Was aye the o'erword when she came;
To mony a queer auld tabby
     Sin' syne hae we said the same. -

Whiles, like auld carles we sat, too,
     And oh! what gran' sense we talk'd then,
An' bemoan'd us, how things were a' better
     In times when oursels were young men.

How love, an' leal hearts, an' devout anes
     Had flown frae the wand clean awa';
How the price coffee stood at was awfu',
     An' gowd no to come by ava'.

They are gane, thae ploys o' my childhood,
     An' a' things are ganging, guid sooth!
The gowd, time itsel', and the warld,
     Love, faith, and leal-hearted truth.