Song of a warrior | The most beautiful characteristics of the life of a proud man

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by Johann Andreas Stähele (1794 - 1864)

Translation © by Malcolm Wren

Des stolzen Männerlebens schönste...

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: CAT DUT ENG FRE

Des stolzen Männerlebens schönste Zeichen 
Sind [Flammen]¹, Donner und die Kraft der Eichen.
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  doch
Nichts mehr vom Eisenspiel, [vom]² Bliz der Waffen!
Der ew'ge Friede ward uns zugewendet,
Dem Schlafe ward die Kraft der Faust verpfändet.
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  zwar – [erst]³ jüngst noch
Haben wir das [scharfe]³ Schwert geschwungen,
Und kühn auf Leben oder Tod gerungen;
Jetzt aber sind die Tage hohen Kampfs verklungen
Und was uns blieb aus jenen Tagen,
Es ist vorbei, bald sind's - ach! nur noch Sagen!!

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• F. Schubert

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Elemente der Bewegungskunst eines Reuter-Regiments, als Anhang zu den Vorlesungen über die Taktik der Reuterei, von einem Obersten der Reuterei. Carlsruhe, im Verlag der C. F. Müller'schen Hofbuchhandlung. 1819, title page, verso. This publication does not identify an author, but the work from which this is excerpted appears in Alpenrosen. Ein Schweizer Almanach auf das Jahr 1819, herausgegeben von Kühn, Meisner, Wÿß u. a., Bern beÿ J. J. Bürgdorfer; Leipzig beÿ L. G. Schmid, page 133, and the author is given as A. Stähele.

¹ Schubert: "Flamme"
² Schubert: "und nichts vom"
³ omitted by Schubert

Text Authorship:

by Johann Andreas Stähele (1794 - 1864), no title, first published 1819 [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 Franz Peter Schubert (1797 - 1828), "Lied eines Kriegers", D 822 (1824) [sung text checked 1 time]

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

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sim Lee , Peter Rastl [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 105

Song of a warrior

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

The most beautiful characteristics of the life of a proud man
Are flames, thunder and the strength of the oak tree.
  . . . . . . . . . . . . yet
No more playing with iron or the lightning of weapons!
Eternal peace has been bestowed on us,
The power of the fist has been pledged to sleep.
 . . . . . . . . . . . for only very recently
We were swinging our (sharp) swords
And we were boldly wrestling for life and death;
But now the days of serious battle have faded away
And what remains for us from those days,
It is in the past, or soon it will be, oh all that is left are our stories!!

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2019 by Malcolm Wren, (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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Johann Andreas Stähele (1794 - 1864), no title, first published 1819
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2019-11-19
Line count: 12
Word count: 127