HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

56 i^eine.
THE EAGLE.
His fellow-animals, men especially,
imagine that the eagle cannot sing —
they know not that he sings only when
he is beyond their realm, and is too
proud to have any but the sun for a
listener. He is right; some of his
feathered kindred down below might
want to criticise his song. I have myself
had experience how such criticism
sounds. The hen standing on one leg
clucks — the singer has no spirit; the
turkey splutters out he is wanting in real
earnestness; the dove coos — he knows
nothing of true love ; the goose cackles—
he is ignorant of science; the capon
twitters—he is immoral; the bullfinch
chirps — alas! he has no religion; the
sparrow peeps — he is not productive
enough ; hoopoes, magpies, owls, — all
croak, screech, or caw. The nightingale
alone joins not in the chorus of the
critics; unconcerned about all the world,
the red rose is her only thought and her
only song, she hovers yearningly over it,
and in the intensity of her joy falls upon
the loved thorns, and bleeds and dies.
AN APHORISM.
Thought is unseen Nature, as Nature
is unseen Thought.