I wasted much evil time | I wasted much evil time before I found you

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by Felix Ludwig Julius Dahn (1834 - 1912)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Viel böse Zeit hab' ich verzehrt, eh'...

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

Viel böse Zeit hab' ich verzehrt, eh' ich dich hab' gefunden:
Es hat die Welt mein Herz versehrt mit [vielen]¹ roten Wunden. 
Die Weiber fand ich falsch und schwank und keine hatte Treue: 
Da ward das Herz mir zag und krank, der Minne hatt' ich Reue.
Doch du bist treu, dir trau' ich gern; läßt du dich falsch erfinden, 
Wird auch dem schönen Morgenstern sein heller Glanz erblinden.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• M. Zenger

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Felix Dahn's Sämtliche Werke poetischen Inhalts, Band XVI, Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1898, page 69.

¹ Zenger: "tausend"

Text Authorship:

by Felix Ludwig Julius Dahn (1834 - 1912), no title, appears in Schlichte Weisen, no. 15 [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 Max Zenger (1837 - 1911), "Viel böse Zeit hab' ich verzehrt", op. 13 (Fünf Lieder für Sopran, Alt, Tenor und Bass) no. 3, published 1873 [ satb quartet ], Mainz: Schott [sung text checked 1 time]

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

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor] , Johann Winkler

This text was added to the website: 2019-11-04
Line count: 6
Word count: 69

I wasted much evil time

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

I wasted much evil time before I found you:
The world has hurt my heart with many red wounds.
I found women to be false and fickle and none of them were faithful:
My heart became timid and sick, I rued love.
But you are faithful; I trust you gladly; if it were found that you were false
The bright radiance of the lovely morning star would also go out.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2019 by Sharon Krebs, (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 Felix Ludwig Julius Dahn (1834 - 1912), no title, appears in Schlichte Weisen, no. 15
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2019-12-11
Line count: 6
Word count: 70