The dragon's lair

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A personal collection of verse

Faust II 6745-6749

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Greenhorns don’t like to hear the honest truth
One tells it plain to unsuspecting youth
Who will learn it themselves the painful way
Years later. Then of course they’ll say
Their own brains were their only school
And their old erstwhile teacher was a fool.

translated by: David Luke