Old song | There was once a baker

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by Frank Wedekind (1864 - 1918)

Translation © by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947)

Altes Lied

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG ENG

Chosen for Diff

Es war einmal ein Bäcker,
Der prunkte mit seinem Wanst,
Wie du ihn kühner und kecker
Dir schwerlich träumen kannst.
Er hat zum Weib genommen
Ein würdiges Gegenstück;
Sie konnten zusammen nicht kommen,
Sie waren viel zu dick.

Text Authorship:

by Frank Wedekind (1864 - 1918) [author's text not yet checked 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 Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Altes Lied", 2009 [medium voice and piano] [ sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Gary Bachlund) , "Old song", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English [singable] (Walter A. Aue) , "Old song", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-03-15
Line count: 8
Word count: 38

Old song

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Chosen for Diff

There was once a baker
whose belly was so resplendent large
that there was little bolder and saucier
that something so heavy could be imagined.
He had chosen a wife
to be his worthy companion;
but she couldn't get close to him,
simply because she was too fat.

Text Authorship:

by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Old song", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Frank Wedekind (1864 - 1918)
- Go to the text page.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-03-15
Line count: 8
Word count: 48