Anybody Better than Nobody. In the barren dusk Even the snake That spirals Terror on the sand -- Better than nobody In this lonely Land.
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Note: Owens moves a period in the first four lines as follows: "Anybody/
Better than/ Nobody/ In the barren dusk."
Authorship:
- by (James Mercer) Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967), "Desert", appears in Fields of Wonder, in Border Line, no. 15, first published 1947 [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 Robert Owens (1925 - 2017), "Desert", op. 24 no. 15, published 1970 [ baritone and piano ], from Border Line, no. 15 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Günter Raphael (1903 - 1960), "Desert", copyright © 1965 [ baritone, piano, oboe, and percussion ], from My Dark Hands = Mein dunklen Hände, no. 4, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Paridam von dem Knesebeck (c1911 - 2000) , "Wüste", appears in Mein dunklen Hände. Moderne Negerlyrik in Original und Nachdichtung, first published 1953, copyright © and by Eva Hesse (1925 - 2020) , "Wüste", appears in Mein dunklen Hände. Moderne Negerlyrik in Original und Nachdichtung, first published 1953, copyright © ; composed by Günter Raphael.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-05-28
Line count: 10
Word count: 24
Irgendwer/ Ist besser als [ ... ]
Confirmed with Mein dunklen Hände. Moderne Negerlyrik in Original und Nachdichtung, herausgegeben und übertragen von Eva Hesse und Paridam von dem Knesebeck, München: Nymphenburger Verlag, 1953, page 59.
Authorship:
- by Paridam von dem Knesebeck (c1911 - 2000), "Wüste", appears in Mein dunklen Hände. Moderne Negerlyrik in Original und Nachdichtung, first published 1953, copyright © [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
- by Eva Hesse (1925 - 2020), "Wüste", appears in Mein dunklen Hände. Moderne Negerlyrik in Original und Nachdichtung, first published 1953, copyright © [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in English by (James Mercer) Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967), "Desert", appears in Fields of Wonder, in Border Line, no. 15, first published 1947
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Günter Raphael (1903 - 1960), "Wüste", 1965 [baritone, piano, oboe, and percussion], from My Dark Hands = Mein dunklen Hände, no. 4, also set in English [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
This text was added to the website: 2015-02-21
Line count: 11
Word count: 26