Translated by A. Z. Foreman - The Cats lyrics

Philosophers austere and lovers wild Have the same love of cats in their late days: Pride of the household, powerful and mild, Thin-skinned like them; like them, set in their ways. These friends of pleasure and of scholarship Seek silence and the horror darkness breeds. If they could bend their pride to rein or whip Erebus would have them for gloomy steeds. Dreaming, they have the stately countenance Of sphinxes sprawled out in some lonely land, Seeming to swoon into an endless trance. Their fertile flanks hold many a magic spark, And specks of gold like finely sifted sand Bestar their mystic pupils in the dark.