by
Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)
The man he killed
Language: English
Available translation(s): GER
Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have [sat]1 us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
I shot him dead because -
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
He thought he'd ['list]2 perhaps,
Offhand like - just as I -
Was out of work, had sold his traps,
No other reason why.
Yes, quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half-a-crown.
G. Baxter sets stanzas 1-2, 4-5
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Baxter: "set"
2 Baxter: "enlist"
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Der Mann, den er erschoß", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Garth Baxter
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 116
Der Mann, den er erschoß
Language: German (Deutsch)  after the English
Wenn er und ich gesehn
uns in der Schenke hier,
wir hätten uns zusammgesetzt,
getrunken Bier auf Bier.
Doch als Soldaten wir
uns gegenüberstehn.
Ich schieß auf ihn und er auf mich,
da war's um ihn geschehn.
Ich schoß ihn tot, weil...
weil er mein Gegner war,
just so: Mein Gegner war er schon...
und doch, obwohl das klar,
Vielleicht ging er zum Heer
nur so - und grad wie ich -
war arbeitslos - sein Sach verkauft -
nichts anders, sicherlich.
Ja, seltsam ist der Krieg!
Da schießt Du einen tot,
den Du ansonst bewirtet' und
geholfen aus der Not.
Authorship:
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2010-03-26
Line count: 20
Word count: 101