An einen Boten

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"An einen Boten"
An einen Boten (melody).png
Text and melody from Deutscher Liederhort (1893) [1]
Song
LanguageGerman
English titleTo a Messenger
Publishednot later than 1778
Genre Folk
Songwriter(s) Traditional
Melody in a MIDI rendering

"An einen Boten" (German for "To a messenger") is a short German folk song.

Contents

C. F. Nicolai published the lyrics in 1778 in his Ein feyner kleyner Almanach (German : A Fine Little Almanac). [2] Almost unchanged, it was included by C. Brentano and A. von Arnim in their collection of German folk songs, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1806). [3] Goethe called the verses "uniquely comical and good-natured" (einzig lustig und gutlaunig). [4]

Some composers have written tunes for the song. [5] [6] A few English translations have been published as well. [7]

Words

Wenn du zu mei'm Schätzel kommst,
Sag: ich ließ' sie grüßen;
Wenn sie fraget: wie mir's geht?
Sag: auf beiden Füßen.

Wenn sie fraget, ob ich krank?
Sag: ich sei gestorben;
Wenn sie an zu weinen fangt,
Sag: ich käme morgen. [3]

If you come to my darling,
Say: I send her greetings;
If she asks how it's going with me,
Say: On both feet.

If she asks whether I am sick,
Say: I have died.
If she begins to weep,
Say: I will come tomorrow.

Melody

An einen Boten

Source [1]

References

  1. 1 2 Erk, Ludwig; Böhme, Franz Magnus, eds. (1893). Deutscher Liederhort: Auswahl der vorzüglicheren deutschen Volkslieder, nach Wort und Weise aus der Vorzeit und Gegenwart (in German). Vol. II. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel. p. 331, no. 510d – via Hathi Trust.
  2. ↑ Christoph Friedrich Nicolai, ed. (1778). "Wenn du bey meyn Schatzgen kommst". Eyn feyner kleyner Almanach (in German). Vol. II. Berlin and Stettin: Nicolai. pp. 104–105.
  3. 1 2 Arnim, Achim von; Brentano, Clemens (1906). Grisebach, Eduard [in German] (ed.). Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Alte deutsche Lieder (in German). Vol. I. Leipzig: Hesse und Becker. pp. 153–154 – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ von Goethe, J. W. (1830). Goethes Werke: Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand (in German). Stuttgart and Tübingen: J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung  [ de ]. p. 194. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  5. ↑ Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical compositions. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1941. p. 1362.
  6. ↑ Katalog des Musikalien-Verlages…. J. Rieter-Biedermann. 1896. Archived from the original on 18 July 2018.
  7. ↑ Stokes, Richard. "To a messenger". oxfordlieder.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 July 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2025. From The Book of Lieder: The Original Text of Over 1000 Songs, London: Faber, 2005.
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