East and West

Today I listened to the English radio program "Eikaiwa Jyokyu" by Ken Toyama which has already started from this April. I've been so busy and had no time to listen the program that I recorded to MD up to now.

I really enjoyed the riddle "Why did the chicken cross the road?" at Humor Day and "Buttons and Bows" by Dinah Shore at Song of the Month (you can hear the sample here).

According to the footnotes of the song, the lyrics "East is east and west is west" is a quotation from the famous epic "The Ballad of the East and West" by Rudyard Kipling.

Speaking of "East and West"... That's it! "Westöstlich" by Morgenstern. Down memory lane!
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Als er dies v. Korf erzählt,
fühlt sich dieser leicht gequält;

denn für ihn ist Selbstverstehung,
dass man mit der Erdumdrehung

schlafen müsse, mit den Pfosten
seines Körpers strikt nach Osten.

Und so scherzt er kaustisch-köstlich:
Nein, mein Diwan bleibt - westöstlich!
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I want to look for my translation a long time ago... Yes, this one.

それを聞いたコルフさん
何だかちょっとぎこちない

だってそんなの当たり前
地球の自転に沿うように
自分の体をきっちりと
東へ向けて眠ること

そして彼は辛辣で
愉快な冗談言いました

いいや僕の長椅子は
ゲーテの詩集が言うように
西から東へ向かってる
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I want to find an English version.

Now when he told Von Korf about
his bed the latter was put out.

"It's plain," said he, "one ought to station
oneself along the Earth's rotation.

It's obvious, to me at least,
one sleeps best pointing firmly east.

It pains me, but I think it best
that my divan should stay east-west!"
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I tend to spend too much here when I have time. I should go to bed soon.