Section 24 The Winking Eyelid1
The2 object of winking is a very important one. An outside3 window soon (S. 5, N. 2) gets soiled4 and dirty, and a careful shopkeeper5 cleans his windows every morning. But our eye-windows must6 never have so much as a speck or spot upon them; and the winking eyelid7 is the busy apprentice who, not once a day, but8 all the day, keeps the living glass9 clean; so that, after all10, we are little worse off than the fishes, who11 bathe their eyes and wash their faces every moment.—Prof. G. Wilson.
Notes
1 Das Öffnen und Schließen der Augenlider.
2 ‘The — one’, say ‘The opening and closing of the eyelid (pl.) is of great importance.
3 outside window = street window.
4 trübe.
5 Ladenhüter; supply the adv. ‘therefore’ after the verb ‘cleans’, and place the object last of all.
6 ‘must — them’, say ‘must (dürfen) never suffer (erleiden) even (selbst) the smallest speck, the least dimness (Trübung).
7 das sich öffnende und schließende Augenlid; ‘apprentice’, here Ladenbursche.
8 but — day, nein, den ganzen Tag hindurch.
9 Augenglas.
10 genau betrachtet; the subject should be placed immediately after the conjunction ‘that’; little = not much; to be badly off, schlimm daran sein.
11 who — moment, welche Augen und Gesicht jeden Augenblick baden und waschen.