Viel furchen, jäten, graben | Viel furchen, jäten, graben

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by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)

Translation © by Walter A. Aue

I hoed and trenched and weeded

Language: English

Our translations: GER

I hoed and trenched and weeded,
And took the flowers to fair:
I brought them home unheeded;
The hue was not the wear.

So up and down I sow them
For lads like me to find,
When I shall lie below them,
A dead man out of mind.

Some seed the birds devour,
And some the season mars,
But here and there will flower
The solitary stars,

And fields will yearly bear them
As light-leaved spring comes on,
And luckless lads will wear them
When I am dead and gone.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 63, first published 1896 [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 Margarita L. Merriman (b. 1927), "I hoed and trenched and weeded" [ alto or baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "I hoed and trenched and weeded" [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

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

GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , "Viel furchen, jäten, graben", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-06-01
Line count: 16
Word count: 90

Viel furchen, jäten, graben

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Viel furchen, jäten, graben,
bis Markt die Blumen bricht:
Es wollt sie keiner haben -
Solch Farbe trägt man nicht!

Drum säh' ich sie, vergnügend
so mancher Knaben Sinn,
wenn, unter ihnen liegend,
ich schon vergessen bin.

Die Vögel fressen Saaten
und Wetter sind nicht fern;
doch manchmal wird geraten
ein einsam Blütenstern.

Und jährlich werden heben
solch' Sterne sich im Mai
für andrer Knaben Leben,
wenn meines ist vorbei.

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2008 by Walter A. Aue, (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.
Walter A. Aue. Contact: waue (AT) dal (DOT) ca
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in English by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 63, first published 1896
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2008-06-01
Line count: 16
Word count: 69