"Song of Hiddigeigei"
"At the end of his days
Stands the cat Hiddigeigei.
And he thinks, with faint lamenting,
How soon his existence shall be over.
He would gladly, out of his treasure
Of rich wisdom, supply teachings
That would lend the future of many a cat
An anchor in this unstable life.
Meow! Meow! Meow!
Oh, the path of life is rough.
Many stones lie there,
On which we old ones, wretchedly tripping,
Have often sprained our legs.
Oh, life contains much strife
And often wounds [us] unnecessarily.
Many a courageous black cat
Has needlessly found his death.
Meow! Meow! Meow!
But of what use is the age-old sorrow?
And I hear the young ones laughing.
And they act even more stupidly.
Only misfortune will make them wise.
History is always fruitless.
Let them manage as best they can!
Hiddigeigei's instructive songs
Shall remain unsung.
Meow! Meow! Meow!"
That's an English translation from the original Deutche.
I saw the cat as arrogant, a bit self-pitying and entirely wrong about history being fruitless. I liked the poem; though wouldn't tie an identity to a character so morose and down on upcoming generations. You read my page - I admire a guy who saw chaos raining down around his ears and still found humor in what most saw as disaster. That optimism and spirit beats the hell out of Milne's Eeyore constantly crying "Oh Poo...what's the use?"
If your current mission in life is to grind out the remaining hopes of the still-striving please move on to another individual. You have no ideas of the horrors I haven't put on my page. Getting to average and surviving has been an achievement without burdening the taxpayers since leaving the orphanage. Miau! Miau!