Vor dem trockenen Grünen Veltliner
mache ich einen tiefen Diener,
denn selbst er dient diesem alten Knacker,
begleitend ihn ganz bis zum Totenacker.
***
Grüner Veltliner is the default white wine of any proper Austrian Gasthaus. When I am back there in February for Fasching I’ll consume industrial quantities of it again. I have previously written here in an old blog about my relationship to this wine, wine in general, and with my Tyrolean friends. This stanza of light verse is for them.
Prose translation: To honour dry Grüner Veltliner / I make now a deep bow, / since he himself serves the old fart I am, / all the way to the grave. Sorry, can’t rhyme it in English.