Am Galgen hing ein armer Kerl

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Upon the gallows hung a wretch

Language: English

Our translations: GER

Upon the gallows hung a wretch,
Too sullied for the hell
To which the law entitled him.
As nature's curtain fell
The one who bore him tottered in , —
For this was woman's son.
"'Twere all I had," she stricken gasped —
Oh, what a livid boon!

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Text Authorship:

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Joel Weiss , "Upon the gallows hung a wretch", 2014 [mezzo-soprano and viola], from I Shall not Live in Vain, no. 4. [ sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Joel Weiss

This text was added to the website: 2016-08-29
Line count: 8
Word count: 48

Am Galgen hing ein armer Kerl

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Am Galgen hing ein armer Kerl
zu schmutzig für die Höll’,
die laut Gesetz er hat verdient.
Und als der Vorhang fiel,
kam angewankt, die ihn einst trug,
denn dieser war ihr Sohn.
„Mein Alles war’s“ - sie rang nach Luft -
welch Gabe - leichenblass!

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Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2018 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
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Based on:

a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2018-11-07
Line count: 8
Word count: 43