Nebukadnezar - Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur | Todmüde ist mein Leib, treibt doch mein Geist ein böses Spiel mit ihm

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by Elinor Wylie (1885 - 1928)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Nebuchadnezzar

Language: English

Our translations: GER

My body is weary to death of my mischievous brain; 
I am weary forever and ever of being brave; 
Therefore I crouch on my knees while the cool white rain 
Curves the clover over my head like a wave. 

The stem and the frosty seed of the grass are ripe; 
I have devoured their strength; I have drunk them deep; 
And the dandelion is gall in a thin green pipe, 
But the clover is honey and sun and the smell of sleep.

First appeared in New Republic, December 1921.

Confirmed with Selected Works of Elinor Wylie, ed. by Evelyn Helmich Hively, Kent State University Press, Kent (Ohio), 2005, page 36.

Text Authorship:

by Elinor Wylie (1885 - 1928), "Nebuchadnezzar", appears in Black Armour: A Book of Poems [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 Russell Woollen (1923 - 1994), "Nebuchadnezzar", 1964 [voice and piano], from Willow Brook Suite [
text not verified
]

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

GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , title 1: "Nebukadnezar - Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Bertram Kottmann

This text was added to the website: 2015-09-01
Line count: 8
Word count: 82

Nebukadnezar ‑ Nabû‑kudurrī‑uṣur

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Todmüde ist mein Leib, treibt doch mein Geist ein böses Spiel mit ihm;
für alle Zeiten bin ich’s leid, ein Held zu sein;
so kauere ich auf den Knien, derweil der kühle weiße Regen
den Klee wölbt über mein Gesicht wie eine Woge.

Halm und kaltes Korn des Grases sind gereift;
ich habe ihre Stärke aufgesogen; ich habe sie getrunken bis zur Neige;
der Löwenzahn ist gallebitter in einem dünnen grünen Halm,
doch Honig ist der Klee und Sonne und der Duft von Schlaf.

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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
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Based on:

a text in English by Elinor Wylie (1885 - 1928), "Nebuchadnezzar", appears in Black Armour: A Book of Poems
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2015-09-01
Line count: 8
Word count: 84