Now have I fed and eaten up the rose
Which then she laid within my stiff cold hand.
That I should ever feed upon a rose
I never had believed in liveman's land.

Only I wonder was it white or red
The flower that in the dark my food has been.
Give us, and if Thou give, thy daily bread,
Deliver us from evil, Lord, Amen.

from the German of Gottfried Keller
James Joyce