Friday, March 4, 2011

Die Kapelle meaning

Hello Choir! Ok the meaning, for the benefit of those who didn't manage to copy this afternoon:

Die Kapelle (The Chapel)

Droben stehet die Kapelle
(Above stands the chapel)
Schauet still ins Tal hinab
(That looks down quietly into the valley)
Drunten singt bei Wies und Quelle
(Below sings by the meadow and river)
Froh und hell der Hirtenknab
(The happy and bright sheperd boy)

Traurig toent das Gloecklein nieder
(Sadly rings the bell above)
Schauerlich der Leichenchor
(Eerie is the Cadaver choir)
Stille sind die frohen Lieder
(Quiet are the happy songs)
Und der Knabe lauscht empor
(And the sheperd boy looks up)

Droben bringt man sie zu Grabe
(Lit: above brings one them to grave= Above one is brought to their grave)
Die sich freuten in dem Thal
(Those who are happy in the valley)
Hirtenknabe, Hirtenknabe
(Sheperd boy, sheperd boy)
Dir auch singt man dort einmal
(Lit. Yourself also sing one(man) there one day = For you one will it sing as well one day OR For you it will be sung one day as well)

*
Btw the lyrics are from a poem by someone called Ludwig Uhlman or something and it's based on an actual Chapel in Germany near a town called Tuebingen called "die Wurmlinger Kapelle" which is right on top a mountain or something (you can go google it; I wanted to put a picture of it here but I have no idea how to do it cos I'm on my phone, teehee) He won a poetry competition and the topic was to write about the Chapel. Thus this poem came about.

The gist of the poem: (yes you're doing literature in German! :D) At first the sheperd boy is singing happily. Then he hears the funeral procession above at the chapel, which sits atop a mountain. Following that he stops singing and realises that one day he will die too and the eerie funeral songs he's listening too right now will one day be played for him. (memento-mori) So my teacher made us draw some diagram and everything "above" (chapel, bell ringing, cadaver choir, grave) is sad/death whereas everything "below" (sheperd boy, happy songs etc) is happy/life. If you see the translation you'll notice that the sentences in Stanza 1 and 2 either talk about the below/above. Yupyup. Something like that. Genius ain't it??? :D


*this is supposed to be in smaller font size*
Note: Credits for the meaning and the extra info and all (in case ur wondering) from my (and Felicia's) german teacher (she was from Tuebingen, that German town near the Wurmlinge Kapelle!) who actually bothered to print out worksheets based on this poem aside from teaching us how to analyse it when all we did was ask her how to pronounce some words O.O (Which made it a HUGE waste if I didn't tell you guys so woohoo man I finally have!)

Ok that's finally done. (Shit my thumbs are like frozen now)

Nights!
Rosssss

(That's the worksheet, if it helps! that's the most I can upload for now, your welcome!)

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