Tuesday, June 8, 2021
In song number 14, the miller is confronted with a new development: a hunter has arrived and captured the interest of the beloved maiden. Here are two versions – the first in the original German, and then a fun version in English.
https://youtu.be/FDR1I441FkY
The Hunter
What, then, does the hunter seek here by the stream?
Remain, haughty hunter, in your own territory!
Here there’s no game for you to hunt;
Here dwells only a doe, a tame one, for me.
And if you wish to see the tender doe,
Then leave your guns in the woods,
And leave your barking dogs at home,
And stop the horn from hooting and tooting,
And shave from your chin that shaggy hair;
Or you’ll frighten the doe in her garden.
Better yet, stay in the forest
And leave the mills and the miller in peace!
What use are fish among the green branches?
What would the squirrel want in a blue pond?
So haughty hunter, remain in the wood,
And leave me with my three wheels alone!
And if you’d be liked by my sweetheart,
Then know, my friend, what troubles her heart:
The boars, they come at night from the grove
And break into her cabbage-garden
And trample and wallow around in the field.
The boars - shoot them, you big bold hunter!
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John Scialdone published this page in Daily Beethoven 2021-06-08 10:01:54 -0400