Der Mann, den er erschoß | Wenn er und ich gesehn

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by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)

Translation © by Walter A. Aue

The man he killed

Language: English

Our translations: 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.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• G. Baxter

G. Baxter sets stanzas 1-2, 4-5

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Baxter: "set"
² Baxter: "enlist"

Text Authorship:

by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), appears in Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses, first published 1909 [author's text checked 1 time 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 Garth Baxter (b. 1946), "The man he killed", stanzas 1-2,4-5 [ satb chorus and piano ], from The Battle Cry, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
by John Pierre Herman Joubert (1927 - 2019), "The man he killed", op. 109 no. 4 (1985), from South of the Line, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]

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: 115

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.

Text Authorship:

Singable translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2010 by Walter A. Aue, (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.
Walter A. Aue. Contact: waue (AT) dal (DOT) ca
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Based on:

a text in English by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), appears in Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses, first published 1909
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2010-03-26
Line count: 20
Word count: 97