Sadness | Whoever wishes to be sad might read me

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by Berthold Viertel (1885 - 1953)

Translation © by Dr. Anthony Krupp

Wer traurig sein will, wird vielleicht...

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG ENG

Wer traurig sein will, wird vielleicht mich lesen,
Und er wird denken zwischen [meinen]¹ Zeilen:
"Ja, traurig ist auch dieser Mensch gewesen.
[Kann]² seine Traurigkeit die meine heilen?"
 
[Wir wollen uns um unsre]³ Gründe fragen
Der Traurigkeit, du Mensch der [späteren]⁴ Zeiten.
Die [meinen]⁵ wird dir die Geschichte sagen,
Die Jahresdaten meiner Traurigkeiten.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• H. Eisler • H. Eisler

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Bertold Viertel, Der Lebenslauf. Gedichte, New York: Aurora Verlag, 1946, page 42

¹ Eisler: "den"
² Eisler: "Aber kann"
³ Eisler: "Ich will dich nicht über die"
⁴ Eisler: "besseren"
⁵ Eisler: "meine"

Text Authorship:

by Berthold Viertel (1885 - 1953), "Wer traurig sein will", appears in Der Lebenslauf. Gedichte, in Stimmen der Zeit [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 Hanns Eisler (1898 - 1962), "Chanson allemande", 1953 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Hanns Eisler (1898 - 1962), "Traurigkeit", published 1962 [ baritone, string orchestra ], from Ernste Gesänge, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

Research team for this page: Alberto Pedrotti , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 58

Sadness

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Whoever wishes to be sad might read me
And he will think between the lines:
Yes, this person has also been sad,
But can my sadness heal his?

You should ask about the reasons for sadness,
You of better times.
History will tell you of mine,
The dates of my sadness.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2005 by Dr. Anthony Krupp, (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 Berthold Viertel (1885 - 1953), "Wer traurig sein will", appears in Der Lebenslauf. Gedichte, in Stimmen der Zeit
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2005-02-20
Line count: 8
Word count: 51