which have roused the majority of them against me. Sometimes there are nobler reasons, as when, for example, a chief of the Abderite party, who for many years has incessantly attacked me in abuse, and seriously is only a champion of his wife, who believes that she has been insulted by me, and has in consequence sworn my ruin.[1]
Pardon me, dear reader, if these lines are not adapted to the seriousness of the time. But my enemies are really too ridiculous. I say "enemies." I give them this title out of politeness, though most of them are only my slanderers. They are little people, whose hate does not rise so high as my calves. They gnaw with broken blunted teeth at my boots, barking themselves weary down below there.
It is more perplexing and vexing when friends misjudge me. That might well put me out of tune, and, in fact, so it does. But I will not conceal, nay, I will openly confess, that my good name has been attacked by the Heavenly party. This may, however, be due to mere imagination or caprice, and their insinuations are not so
- ↑ I here omit an abusive passage which is as discreditable to the author as it would be disagreeable to the reader. It is amusing to observe how Heine, after declaring that his enemies are utterly indifferent to and amuse him, manifests in this omitted sentence all the gall of bitterness and intensity of hate from wounded vanity when speaking of two petty personal foes.—Translator.
