We sat by the fisher's cottage, <br />We looked on sea and sky, <br />We saw the mists of evening <br />Come riding and rolling by : <br /> <br />The lights in the lighthouse window <br />Brighter and brighter grew, <br />And on the dim horizon <br />A ship still hung in view. <br /> <br />We spake of storm and shipwreck, <br />Of the seaman's anxious life ; <br />How he floats 'twixt sky and water, <br />'Twixt joy and sorrow's strife : <br /> <br />We spoke of coasts far distant, <br />We spoke of south and north, <br />Strange men, and stranger customs, <br />That those wild lands send forth : <br /> <br />Of the giant trees of Ganges, <br />Whose balm perfumes the breeze ; <br />And the fair and slender creatures, <br />That kneel by the lotus-trees : <br /> <br />Of the flat-skulled, wide-mouthed, Laplanders, <br />So dirty and so small ; <br />Who bake their fish on the embers, <br />And cower, and shake, and squall. <br /> <br />The maidens listened earnestly, <br />At last the tales were ended ; <br />The ship was gone, the dusky night <br />Had on our talk descended.<br /><br />Heinrich Heine<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-evening-gossip/
