We seek earth | We need only the brown earth

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by Hellmut Draws-Tychsen (1904 - 1973)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Wir suchen Erde

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

Wir brauchen nur die braune Erde
Und blauen Himmel über uns.
Fern dröhnt das Stampfen wilder Pferde.
Nichts in der Haide lieber uns
Als scharf der Duft des Haidekrautes
Als fern der Birke schmales Grün.
Rings nichts Erdachtes nicht Erbautes;
Nur bunter Blumen üppig Blühn . . . 
Wir brauchen nur die braunen Äcker
Voll Weizenähren reif und blond.
Den andern wird die Großstadt Wecker,
Wir suchen Erde frühlingübersonnt.

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Text Authorship:

by Hellmut Draws-Tychsen (1904 - 1973)

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

by Julius Gessinger (1899 - 1986), "Wir suchen Erde", op. 40, Heft 2 no. 7 (c1939), published 1965, first performed 1940 [ baritone and piano ], from Mein Land, no. 7, Schwäbisch-Hall: Musikverlag Schwäbisch-Hall [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "We seek earth", copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2022-09-26
Line count: 12
Word count: 69

We seek earth

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

We need only the brown earth
And the blue sky above us.
Far off sounds the stamping of wild horses.
Nothing on the heath is dearer to us
Than the sharp scent of the heather,
Than the narrow green of the birch tree in the distance.
Round about us nothing conceived, nothing constructed;
Only the lush blooming of colourful flowers . . . 
We need only the brown fields
Full of ears of wheat, ripe and blonde.
For the others, the big city becomes their alarm clock,
We seek earth, sunlit by springtime.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2022 by Sharon Krebs, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Hellmut Draws-Tychsen (1904 - 1973)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2022-09-26
Line count: 12
Word count: 93