In a far-away northern county in the placid pastoral
　　　region,
Lives my farmer friend, the theme of my recitative, a
　　　famous tamer of oxen,
There they bring him the three-year-olds and the four-
year-olds to break them,
He will take the wildest steer in the world and break him
　　　and tame him,
He will go fearless without any whip where the young bullock
chafes up and down the yard,
The bullock's head tosses restless high in the air with
　　　raging eyes,
Yet see you! how soon his rage subsides--how soon this
　　　tamer tames him;
See you! on the farms hereabout a hundred oxen young and
　　　old, and he is the man who has tamed them,
They all know him, all are affectionate to him;
See you! some are such beautiful animals, so lofty looking;
Some are buff-color'd, some mottled, one has a white line
　　　running along his back, some are brindled,
Some have wide flaring horns (a good sign)--see you! the
　　　bright hides,
See, the two with stars on their foreheads--see, the round
　　　bodies and broad backs,
How straight and square they stand on their legs--what fine
　　　sagacious eyes!
How straight they watch their tamer--they wish him near them--
　　　how they turn to look after him!
What yearning expression! how uneasy they are when he moves
　　　away from them;
Now I marvel what it can be he appears to them, (books, politics,
poems, depart--all else departs,)
I confess I envy only his fascination--my silent, illiterate friend,
Whom a hundred oxen love there in his life on farms,
In the northern county far, in the placid pastoral region.