Wäre ich ein kleines Kind | Wäre ich ein kleines Kind

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by Verner von Heidenstam (1859 - 1940)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Vore jag ett litet barn

Language: Swedish (Svenska)

Our translations: GER

Vore jag ett litet barn,
då skulle jag gå ut och leka,
bygga mig en liten kvarn
och ro i min lilla eka. 

Mången vän, som här jag vann,
under vita lakan blundar,
och nu är jag en gammal man,
som sitter vid brasan och grundar.

Gåta, saga, jordedag,
ditt djup kan ingen loda.
Ännu samma barn är jag
och människorna goda.

Text Authorship:

by Verner von Heidenstam (1859 - 1940), "Vore jag ett litet barn", appears in Nya dikter, first published 1915 [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 Wilhelm (Vilhelm) Eugen Stenhammar (1871 - 1927), "Vore jag ett litet barn ", op. 37 no. 4 (1918) [ voice and piano ], from Fyra dikter av Verner von Heidenstam , no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]

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

GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Wäre ich ein kleines Kind", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2015-10-27
Line count: 12
Word count: 62

Wäre ich ein kleines Kind

Language: German (Deutsch) after the Swedish (Svenska)

Wäre ich ein kleines Kind,
ginge ich hinaus zum spielen,
steuerte mein Boot geschwind,
baute mir ’ne kleine Mühle.

Freunde, die ich hier gewann,
längst dahingegangen sind;
nun bin ich ein alter Mann,
der am Feuer sitzt und sinnt.

Rätsel, Märchen, irdisch Sein -
letzter Sinn bleibt mir verborgen.
Bin das Kind geblieben, klein,
gute Menschen mich umsorgen.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Swedish (Svenska) 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 Swedish (Svenska) by Verner von Heidenstam (1859 - 1940), "Vore jag ett litet barn", appears in Nya dikter, first published 1915
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2015-11-12
Line count: 12
Word count: 57