Once upon a time there was a rabbit who loved

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by Alfred Kerr (1867 - 1948)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Es liebte einst ein Hase

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG FRE

Es liebte einst ein Hase
Die salbungsvolle Phrase,
Obschon wie ist das sonderbar,
Sein Breitkopf hart und härter war.
Hu, wisst ihr, was mein Hase tut?
Oft saugt er Komponistenblut
Und platzt hernach vor Edelmut.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by Alfred Kerr (1867 - 1948), 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 Richard Georg Strauss (1864 - 1949), "Es liebte einst ein Hase", op. 66 no. 3 (1918), from Krämerspiegel, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , no title, copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Il était une fois un lièvre qui aimait", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Matthias Fletzberger

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 7
Word count: 35

Once upon a time there was a rabbit who...

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Once upon a time there was a rabbit who loved
The unctuous phrase,
Despite the astounding fact
That his wide head became hard and harder.
Ugh, do you know what this rabbit of mine does?
Often he sucks the blood of composers
And afterwards he’s bursting with magnanimity.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translator's notes:
Line 1: Although translated as "rabbit", the word "Hase" is actually the name of one of the owners of the music publishing house "Breitkopf und Härtel" during the late 19th century.
Line 4: A pun: "Breitkopf" literally translates as "wide head" and the German words "hart und härter" (literally, "hard and harder") refer to the "Härtel" part of the name of the publishing house.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2014 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.
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Based on:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Alfred Kerr (1867 - 1948), no title
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2014-09-13
Line count: 7
Word count: 48