Sometimes I risk a faltering step
To meet these -steins, both Ein- and Ep-:
But hesitate and halt at last,
Finding the works of each too vast
For such a finite brain as mine.
They gravel me, both Ep- and Ein-.

Ein-'s themes on space, Ep-'s things in stone
Both leave me gasping. Tho' I own
They're 'after something,' as men say,
What master minds, what years away,
Will fully grasp at last those fine
Profundities of Ep- and Ein-?

I sometimes like to think, if Ep-
Could be induced to take the step,
He might translate and bring in bounds
Vague theories that Ein- propounds
Carve them in stone, that, in the end
Mere fools like me might comprehend.

Working together thus they might
To a dull-witted world bring light.
But when each labors all alone,
Ep- at his monstrous things in stone.
Ein- with his talk of time-light-space
Just leave me with a wooden face.

Tho' here and now I own the twain
Bring but a bussing in my brain,
Yet I, like others of my kind,
Keen to be thought a 'modern' mind,
If asked, will learnedly admit,
Each is indutitably It.