"Exit": Theodor Fontane's "Ausgang" (English translation by Rolf-Peter Wille)

                   Exit

                            

                      Theodor Fontane (1895)

Ever tighter, gently, gently,

Draw the rings of life intently,

Dwindles down that strident strut,

Dwindles hoping, loving, hating,

And is nothing left but waiting

For the final swarthy dot.

                            tr. by Rolf-Peter Wille