Prevod

(Work that one person can carry out alone does not deserve the labor of many.) A man mute from birth, And deaf as a stone besides, Came to discuss with a blind man Some matters of little importance. The blind man spoke in signs, 5 Which the mute understood quite clearly; But when the mute made signs in turn, He was left quite in the dark. In this predicament they brought, To lend them both a hand, 10 A friend the two men shared, Who, alas, had lost an arm. He rendered the mute man's signs Into spoken words, And by this means the blind man 15 Learned what the business was. At last it was concluded, After so strange a conference, That they would have to write A letter on the matter. 20 "My friends," the one-armed man broke in, "My help cannot extend so far; But the schoolmaster will come And write it, if you send for him." "How can he come?" the blind man said. 25 "He's lame and can barely walk! Come, we shall have to go And find him at his house." So they did; and in the end The lame man wrote the letter; 30 The blind and one-armed men dictated, And the mute set off to deliver it. For the business in question Two people would have been more than enough; But, being such as they were, 35 It took all four to do it. And had it not been so recently That in a village in the Alcarria This adventure took place, With more than a hundred souls as witnesses, 40 One might well have suspected That it had been devised on purpose By someone wishing thereby To paint a picture of what happens When a crowd assembles 45 In a literary clique, And every one must set to work On some grand piece of humbug.