Sum of sums | Tell how it was, you silly old fool

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Wilhelm Busch (1832 - 1908)

Translation © by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947)

Summa Summarum

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG ENG

Sag, wie wär es, alter Schragen,
Wenn du mal die Brille putztest,
Um ein wenig nachzuschlagen,
Wie du deine Zeit benutztest.

Oft wohl hätten dich so gerne
Weiche Arme weich gebettet;
Doch du standest kühl von ferne,
Unbewegt, wie angekettet.

Oft wohl kams, dass du die schöne
Zeit vergrimmtest und vergrolltest,
Nur weil diese oder jene
Nicht gewollt, so wie du wolltest.

Demnach hast du dich vergebens
Meistenteils herumgetrieben;
Denn die Summe unsres Lebens
Sind die Stunden, wo wir lieben.

Text Authorship:

by Wilhelm Busch (1832 - 1908) [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), "Summa Summarum", 2009 [baritone and piano] [ sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Gary Bachlund) , "Sum of sums", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Walter A. Aue) , "The Bottom Line", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-11-24
Line count: 16
Word count: 80

Sum of sums

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Tell how it was, you silly old fool,
When you wipe off your filthy lenses,
And think a little more clearly now
That in youth you had lost your senses.

Often you could have quite happily
Found yourself sweetly bedded,
But you stood off sullen, apart and cold,
Unmoved and chained, but not wedded.

Often it seems you threw life away,
Detached from the loveliest of hours.
Only because you would not dare love
And turned love into pain which devours.

Accordingly, and wholly in vain
Has all been so deeply repressed;
The sum and the end of living, old fool,
Is love, not a life time depressed.

Text Authorship:

by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Sum of sums", 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 Wilhelm Busch (1832 - 1908)
- Go to the text page.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-11-24
Line count: 16
Word count: 108