Walt Whitman

"When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer"


WHEN I heard the learn'd astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

P.s. As for Whitman, in the heat of the translation process, one of my mates translated "...saying that Walt Whitman was a racist" into "...twierdząc, że Walt Disney był rasitą". Awesome, isn't it.