Somebody must have played a trick on me,
I’m laughing, for it’s like distorting mirrors, -
Big noses, clown’s grins, - it seems to be
A fancy-ball, or carnival in Venice.

A dancing crowd has encircled me,
They push me urging me to take my chances.
My ordinary face, as I can see,
Was taken for a mask by the rejoicing dancers.

Confetti, fireworks... But all I do is vain,
They look at me reproachfully, with sadness,
The say that I am out of time again,
That I keep stepping on the shoes of partners.

What shall I do? Shall I just run away?
Or had I better go on making merry?
I hope beneath the masks of beasts of prey
Some have a human face and normal bearing.

They all are masked and "wigged", - each is akin
To fairy tale or literary figure
Here is a hangman, there’s a gloomy harlequin,
And every third one is a stupid piggy.

 
 
 
 

I join the dancers, laughing, yet I feel,
Uneasy and disturbed: it may so happen, -
Someone may like his hangman’s mask and will
Refuse to take it off and be quite happy.

What if the gloomy looking harlequin
Should really be disheartened and cast down?
What if the fool should wear his stupid grin
Upon his normal face, without a frown?

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

I wish I could discern a really good face
And tell an honest man from a dishonest...
To save their faces from a break-up and disgrace
They put on masks and wear them in earnest.

I know what masks are for, and I expect
I’m right in guessing the ingenious riddle:
The masks that people wear will protect
Their faces from a slap and spittle.