C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Greediness Punished

By Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866)

IT was the cloister Grabow, in the land of Usédom;

For years had God’s free goodness to fill its larder come:

They might have been contented!

Along the shore came swimming, to give the monks good cheer

Who dwelt within the cloister, two fishes every year:

They might have been contented!

Two sturgeons—two great fat ones—and then this law was set,

That one of them should yearly be taken in a net:

They might have been contented!

The other swam away then until next year came round,

Then with a new companion he punctually was found:

They might have been contented!

So then again they caught one, and served him in the dish,

And regularly caught they, year in, year out, a fish:

They might have been contented!

One year, the time appointed two such great fishes brought,

The question was a hard one, which of them should be caught:

They might have been contented!

They caught them both together, but every greedy wight

Just spoiled his stomach by it; it served the gluttons right:

They might have been contented!

This was the least of sorrows: hear how the cup ran o’er!

Henceforward to the cloister no fish came swimming more:

They might have been contented!

So long had God supplied them of his free grace alone,

That now it is denied them, the fault is all their own:

They might have been contented!

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