August Strindberg: 'Taga rävar.'

      Taking foxes

The taking of foxes is quite an art

though hardly a gentle pursuit. 

Hunting with hounds across fields isn’t smart

for a poor man to try for the brute,

since that calls for a lot of expensive gear

apart from the fact the fox has the habit

of not crossing fields in the open, hides near

to thick bushes to ambush a rabbit.

Instead, one takes carrion – some dead bod

that’s lain for a while and stinks highly –

sufficiency rotten to tempt a tod,

who, though he is cunning and wily,

finds quite irresistible such a strong taste.

The carrion though with strychnine’s been laced,

a poison that pharmacists sell in the main,

one that medicines often contain.