Of all the animals of prey, man is the only sociable one.
Every one of us preys upon his neighbour, and yet we herd together.
The Beggar's Opera: John Gay

Thursday 28 March 2013

A little bovine music


A quiet few days in the Tavern over Easter but I'll leave you with this from the inimitable Max Raabe. It's in German, so I've included a translation below.

'Rinderwahn' is German for mad cow disease; I have had to bend my translation slightly to accommodate scansion and rhyme but if you want a literal one, it can be found here.

This post is, naturally, dedicated to Mark Wadsworth.




That mad cow
Was penned up who knows where or how
Before it ended up as chow
On a plate.

You should try looking overseas
To India, where cows like these
Can wander, sacred, where they please;
It's great!

When Man discovered meat tastes fine
It turned out cows were first in line;
They plan to get their own back now
With mad cow.
And when an angry cow gets mad
Then things for us are looking bad;
First of all the cow feels queer
Then you, my dear.

The chicken now don't feel so swell
And pigs are really quite unwell;
Maybe we'll soon see pestilence
In you, the audience.

2 comments:

  1. In the latter part of WW1 the Machine Gun Corps was based at Belton. Is it still there?

    ReplyDelete
  2. In the latter part of WW1 the Machine Gun Corps was based at Belton. Is it still there?

    ReplyDelete

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