'Faber', quod Sowdan, 'y bidde thee
To playe at the chesses wyth me.'
'Syr', quod he, 'wyth myn entente
I shall do youre comawndement' ...
They sate downe frendys in all wyse,
But they were wrothe ere they dud ryse ...

Sowdan, the younger man, called Faber the son of a whore, and cracked him so hard over the head with a rook he drew blood. Fabel kept his temper, because his opponent was the son of the lord to whom he owed allegiance; but the headstrong young man went for him again, whereupon Faber retaliated in kind.

On hys fete dud he stonde
And took the chekur* in hys honde.
He smote Sowdan undur the ere
He felle to grounde and dyed there.

*chessboard

Weltende

Dem Bürger fliegt vom spitzen Kopf der Hut,
In allen Lüften hallt es wie Geschrei.
Dachdecker stürzen ab und gehn entzwei
Und an den Küsten – liest man – steigt die Flut.

Der Sturm ist da, die wilden Meere hupfen
An Land, um dicke Dämme zu zerdrücken.
Die meisten Menschen haben einen Schnupfen.
Die Eisenbahnen fallen von den Brücken.

End of the World

From bourgeois’ pointed heads their bowlers flew,
the whole atmosphere´s like full of cry.
Tile layers fall from roofs and break in two,
and on the coast, one reads, the water´s high.

The storm is here, the seven seas do wildly hop
onto the land to bust thick dams.
The folk have cold, so many noses need a mop.
From viaducts fall down the trams.