Schinderhannes, Poem by Guillaume Apollinaire

In the forest with his band
Schinderhannes has laid down his arms
The brigand near his brigandess
Neighs with love in the pretty May

Benzel crouching reads the Bible
Without seeing that his pointed hat
With eagle feather serves as a target
For Jacob Born the good-for-nothing

Juliette Blaesius who burps
Pretends to have the hiccups
Hannes strikes a false note
When Schulz comes carrying a tub

And cries out shedding tears
Tub full of perfumed wine
The gendarmes are coming today
We will have drunk the wine of May

Come Julia the mam’zelle
Drink with us this clear broth
Of herbs and Moselle wine
Prosit Bandit in petticoat

This brigandess is soon drunk
And wants Hannes who doesn’t want her
No love now my chick
Serve us a nice little meal

Tonight I must assassinate
That rich Jew on the banks of the Rhine
By the light of resin torches
The flower of May is the florin

Then the whole band eats
Farts and laughs during dinner
Then grows tender in the German way
Before going off to assassinate

Guillaume Apollinaire

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-schinderhannes-guillaume-apollinaire/