Hvad agter jeg mit ringe Liv?
Den Kæde, som jeg, Led paa Led,
Har [knyttet brydsomt]1 sammen?
Jeg vinder Armen om Dit Liv,
Føl, hvor min Kind er feberhed,
Kom, lad os vandre sammen.

Det er vor allersidste Gang,
Og naar vi skilles, falder alt,
Hvad jeg har knyttet, sammen.
Vor Nat er kort, min Dag var lang,
Nu faar jeg Dag med Nat betalt; 
Kom, lad os van...

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Note: modernized spelling would replace all occurrences of 'aa' with 'å'

¹ Aulin: "brydsomt knyttet"

Text Authorship:

• by Holger Henrik Herholdt Drachmann (1846 - 1908), no title, appears in Tannhäuser, first published 1877 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Tor Aulin (1866 - 1914), "Hvad ægter jeg mit ringe Liv" [ voice and piano ], from Trenne sånger, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Heidrun Beer

This text was added to the website: 2009-08-04
Line count: 12
Word count: 70