Cheeky and cheerful | Getting on with girls

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by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

Translation © by Malcolm Wren

Mit Mädeln sich vertragen

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: CAT DUT ENG FRE ITA

Mit [Mädeln]¹ sich vertragen,
Mit Männern 'rumgeschlagen,
Und mehr Credit als Geld;
So kommt man durch die Welt.

Mit vielem läßt sich schmausen;
Mit wenig läßt sich hausen;
Daß wenig vieles sey,
Schafft nur die Lust herbei.

Will sie sich nicht bequemen,
So müßt ihr's eben nehmen.
Will einer nicht vom Ort,
So jagt ihn g'rade fort.

Laßt alle nur mißgönnen,
Was sie nicht nehmen können,
Und seid von Herzen froh;
Das ist das A und O.

So fahret fort zu dichten,
Euch nach der Welt zu richten.
Bedenkt in Wohl und Weh
Dieß goldne A B C.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• F. Schubert • H. Wolf

F. Schubert sets stanzas 1-2

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View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Goethe's Werke, Vollständige Ausgabe lezter Hand, Zehnter Band, Stuttgart und Tübingen, in der J.G.Cotta'schen Buchhandlung, 1827, pages 217-218; and with Goethe's Werke, Erster Band. Gedichte. Erster Theil, mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen von G. von Loeper, Zweite Ausgabe. Verlag von Gustav Hempel, Berlin, 1882, page 83 (Gesellige Lieder).

See also the text from the first version of Claudine von Villa Bella, which shares the first four lines.

¹ Schubert, Wolf: "Mädchen"

Text Authorship:

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), no title, written 1787, appears in Claudine von Villa Bella [author's text checked 2 times 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), "Räuberlied", D 239 no. 7 (1815), published 1893, first performed 1913, stanzas 1-2 [ tenor, chorus and orchestra ], from operetta Claudine von Villa Bella, no. 7 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Hans August Friedrich Zincke genannt Sommer (1837 - 1922), "Frech und froh" [ voice and orchestra ], confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
by Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903), "Frech und froh I", published 1891 [ voice and piano ], from Goethe-Lieder, no. 16, Mainz, Schott [sung text checked 1 time]

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

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

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 99

Cheeky and cheerful

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Getting on with girls,
Kicking about with men,
Having more credit than cash:
That's how you get by in the world.

With a lot you can indulge yourself,
With a little you can live;
Making a little be a lot
Can create pleasure.

Even if you can't bring yourself to do it,
you just have to get on with it.
If somebody doesn't want to move,
just get him out of the way.

Let others begrudge
what they can't attain,
and be cheerful at heart;
that is the alpha and omega

So carry on as a poet
taking your bearings from the world.
Remember in joy and misery
this golden A B C.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2006 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 Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), no title, written 1787, appears in Claudine von Villa Bella
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2006-03-01
Line count: 20
Word count: 113