A sense of humour
(After Jerome k. Jerome)
We were a fashionable and highly cultured party — ail except two commonplace young fellows, students who had just returned from Germany. The truth was. we were too clever for them, our brilliant conversation and our high-class tastes were beyond them.1
We played pieces from the old German masters. We discussed philosophy. Somebody recited a French poem after supper, and we said it was beautiful; and then a lady sang a sentimental ballad in Spanish, and we said it was so pathetic.
And then those two young men got up. and asked us if we had ever heard Heir Slossenn Boschen sing his great German comic song. The young men said it was the funniest song that had ever been written, and that, if we liked, they could ask Herr Slossenn Boschen to sing it. They said it was so funny that, when Herr Slossenn Boschen had sung it once before the German Emperor, he (the German Emperor) had to be carried off to bed.
They said nobody could sing it like Hen Slossenn Boschen; he was so serious all through it that you might think he was reciting a tragedy, and that, of course, made it all the funnier2.
We said we longed to hear it, that we wanted a good laugh, and they went downstairs.
Herr Slossenn Boschen was quite pleased to sing it, for he came up at once, and sat down to the piano without another word.
The prelude didn't suggest a comic song exactly, but we thought that it was the German method, and prepared to enjoy it.
I don't understand German myself. I learned it at school but forgot every word of it two years after I had left, and have felt much better since. Still, I didn't want anybody there to guess my ignorance; so I watched the two students, and followed them.
I noticed as the song went on that many other people were looking at the two young men, as well as myself. These other people also smiled when the young men smiled, and laughed when the young men laughed
And yet that German Professor didn't seem happy. At first when we began to laugh an expression of surprise appeared on his face. We thought it very funny. As we continued to laugh, his surprise turned into indignation. That sent us into convulsions. We told each other that it would be the death of us. this thing. The words alone, we said, were enough to send us into fits, but his serious look — oh, it was too much!
we laughed long alter he had finished. We said it was the funniest thing we had ever heard in all our lives. We said how strange it was. that there was a popular notion that Germans hadn't any sense of humour. And we asked the Professor why he did not .translate the song mil) English, so that common people could understand it. and hear what a real comic song was like.
Then Herr Slossenn Boschen got up and began to swear at us in German (which. 1 think, is the most effective language for that purpose), and he danced, and shook his fists. He said he had never been so insulted in all his life.
It appeared that the song was not comic at all. It was one of the most tragic and pathetic songs in the German language. Herr Slossenn Boschen said he had sung it once before the German Emperor, and he (the German Emperor) had cried like a little child.
It was a difficult situation for us — very difficult. I never saw a party break up so quietly. and with so little fuss. Ashamed we didn't say good-night to each other. We slipped out. avoiding each other as much as possible. i haven't taken much interest in german songs since then.
Теперь я пишу, сначала пересказ, потом мнение, в общем бред)))