If it weren't for wine | If it weren't for wine and girls

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by Albert Sergel (1876 - 1946)

Translation © by Alexander K. Puhrer

Wenn der Wein nicht wär und die Mädel...

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

Wenn der Wein nicht wär und die Mädel dazu,
und zu Hause der dumpfe Frieden,
und der Rost an den Nägeln der Wanderschuh,
und der Schwalbenflug nach Süden:

dann hiesse ich längst Herr Pfarrvikar,
fern von Sorgen und Sünde,
stäche den Leuten den Seelenstar
und hätte die fetteste Pfründe.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Sehnen und Suchen, Vierte Auflage, Rostock: C.J.E. Volckmann (Volckman & Wetter), 1905, page 67.

Text Authorship:

by Albert Sergel (1876 - 1946), no title, appears in Sehnen und Suchen: Gedichte, in Schweifen, o Schweifen!, in Vagus Scholasticus, no. 7 [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 Yrjö Henrik Kilpinen (1892 - 1959), "Wenn der Wein nicht wär", op. 77 no. 7 (1932-3), from Spielmannslieder, no. 7 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Alexander K. Puhrer) , "If it weren't for wine", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 49

If it weren't for wine

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

 If it weren't for wine and girls,
 and the dull quiet at home,
 and the rust on the spikes of my boots,
 and the swallows' migration south:

 then I'd already be the parish vicar,
 far from worries and sin,
 I'd save peoples' souls
 and would have the fattest purse.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © by Alexander K. Puhrer, (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.
Alexander K. Puhrer. We have no current contact information for the copyright-holder.
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Albert Sergel (1876 - 1946), no title, appears in Sehnen und Suchen: Gedichte, in Schweifen, o Schweifen!, in Vagus Scholasticus, no. 7
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 50