Swanee River | Weit weg von hier, zum Swanee River

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by William Prescott Foster (1856 - ?)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home)

Language: English

Our translations: GER

Way down upon de Swanee Ribber,
Far, far away,
Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber,
Dere's wha de old folks stay.
All up and down de whole creation
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for de old plantation,
And for de old folks at home.

CHORUS
All de world am sad and dreary,
Eb-rywhere I roam;
Oh, darkeys, how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home!

All round de little farm I wandered
When I was young,
Den many happy days I squandered,
Many de songs I sung.
When I was playing wid my brudder
Happy was I;
Oh, take me to my kind old mudder!
Dere let me live and die.

One little hut among de bushes,
One dat I love
Still sadly to my memory rushes,
No matter where I rove.
When will I see de bees a-humming
All round de comb?
When will I hear de banjo strumming,
Down in my good old home?

Text Authorship:

by William Prescott Foster (1856 - ?) [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 Stephen Collins Foster (1826 - 1864), "The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home)" [
text verified 1 time
]

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

GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , title 1: "Swanee River", copyright © 2004, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Bertram Kottmann

This text was added to the website: 2008-09-15
Line count: 29
Word count: 161

Swanee River

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Weit weg von hier, zum Swanee River,
weit, weit ist's hin,
sehnt sich mein Herz, und möcht' für immer
zu alten Freunden ziehn.
Auf meinen Straßen, voller Trauer,
wandre ich fort,
sehn mich nach jenen alten Mauern
und meinen Liebsten dort.

CHOR: 
Alles ist so traurig, trübe,
wenn ich zieh' hinaus;
ach, wie wird mir das Herz so müde
weit weg vom Vaterhaus.

Dort bin ich jeden Weg gegangen,
glücklich und frei,
wenn meine Freunde Lieder sangen,
saß ich dabei.
Spielte mit meinem liebsten Bruder,
war ganz im Glück;
bringt mich zu meiner alten Mutter
noch vor dem Tod zurück!

Ein Häuslein unter alten Bäumen
ist mir im Sinn;
und traurig muss ich von ihm träumen,
wo immer ich auch bin.
Seh ich einmal die Bienen wieder
fliegen ums Haus?
Hör ich einmal das Banjo wieder
im alten Elternhaus?

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2004 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
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in English by William Prescott Foster (1856 - ?)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2008-09-15
Line count: 29
Word count: 139