A fairy-tale | As a child I musingly passed my time

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by Luise Elisabeth Bertha Koch (1875 - 1966), as Maidy Koch

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Mit einem Märchen hab' ich als Kind

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

Mit einem Märchen hab' ich als Kind
[Die Zeit mir sinnend]¹ vertrieben,
Und um ein Märchen weint' ich mich blind --
Das Märchen von meinem Lieben.
 
Ich sinne und sinne, wie's wohl begann,
Und lege das Haupt in die Hände . . .
Es war einmal -- so fing es an . . .
Es war -- so ging es zu Ende.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• M. Zurluth

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Dämmerung. Gedichte von Maidy Koch, Dresden und Leipzig: E. Pierson's Verlag, 1900, page 16.

¹ Zurluth: "Mir sinnend die Zeit"

Text Authorship:

by Luise Elisabeth Bertha Koch (1875 - 1966), as Maidy Koch, no title, appears in Dämmerung [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 Michael Zurluth , "Ein Märchen", op. 16 no. 2 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "A fairy-tale", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2016-11-25
Line count: 8
Word count: 60

A fairy‑tale

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

As a child I musingly passed my time
With a fairy-tale,
And I cried my eyes out over one fairy-tale --
The fairy-tale of my loving.
 
I ponder and ponder how it might have started
And sink my head into my hands . . .
Once upon a time -- that's how it started . . .
[Once]¹ -- that's how it ended.

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Literally "it was" (the words that begin a fairy-tale are different in German and the poet was therefore able to use the first two words of the German idiom as an ending).

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2016 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 Luise Elisabeth Bertha Koch (1875 - 1966), as Maidy Koch, no title, appears in Dämmerung
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-11-25
Line count: 8
Word count: 61