The Bottom Line | Would you listen, you old feller

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by Wilhelm Busch (1832 - 1908)

Translation © by Walter A. Aue

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

The Bottom Line

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Would you listen, you old feller,
and your dirty glasses scour:
you should be your own life's teller
by accounting hour for hour.

Often, for the greatest pleasure,
arms so soft tried soft to bed you,
but you coolly scorned the treasure
and stood off, like chains beset you.

And it happened also that you
wasted precious time like haunted,
just because some girl fret you
by not willing as you wanted.

Thus you have, without achieving,
needlessly been huffing, puffing:
for the sum of our living
are the hours of our loving!

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2010 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
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Based on:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Wilhelm Busch (1832 - 1908)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2010-03-23
Line count: 16
Word count: 93