Petőfi Sándor: The song of the dogs (A kutyák dala in English)

Süvölt a zivatar
A felhős ég alatt;
A tél iker fia,
Eső és hó szakad.

Mi gondunk rá? mienk
A konyha szöglete.
Kegyelmes jó urunk
Helyheztetett ide.

S gondunk ételre sincs.
Ha gazdánk jóllakék,
Marad még asztalán,
S mienk a maradék.

Az ostor, az igaz,
Hogy pattog némelykor,
És pattogása fáj,
No de: ebcsont beforr.

S harag multán urunk
Ismét magához int,
S mi nyaljuk boldogan
Kegyelmes lábait!

1847

Loud the storm is howling
under a thundery sky.
The twin sons of winter,
snow and rain, sleet by.
What's that to us? We have
our hearth-side, by the grace
of our good kind Master
who gave us this place.
We shall not die of hunger.
Our Master wills it thus.
When he has fed his fullest
the leavings are for us.
True, his whip sometimes
cracks, and the weals
it leaves are most painful;
but a dog's hurt soon heals.
And then our Master calls us,
his sudden anger over,
and with true gratitude
on his boots we slobber.