Hilde

So it's been almost a year since I posted any music. The last one was inspired by J and A's wedding, but it's not like I haven't been listening to anything. This track is "Hilde" by Samuel Harfst, a song from his album Chronik Einer Liebe (Chronicle of a Love—or maybe the sense is Chronicle of Love, but I would have expected a different construction).

I really like the song. While Harfst is occasionally not really very good at song writing, most of the time he's done a pretty good job of leading you in ways you don't expect in the stories he tells. And he's also good for some tasty Europop, as in "Nur nicht Weg von Dir." (To be fair, the writing on that song isn't as good as it is here.)

I've copied in the text from online—surprisingly difficult for me to find, although I'd understood most of it already—and then put in translations between the stanzas. I've added brackets where I disagree, and that's what I've translated.

Man hat ihm gesagt es sei aus und vorbei
Er solle sich umseh'n nach neuer [Neuen und] Zweisamkeit
Man hat ihm geschwor'n er wird sie nie wieder seh'n
Er wusste schon damals, irgendwie wird's schon weitergehen
Allein der goldene Ring an seinem kleinen Finger
ist für ihn der Beweis sie liebt ihn noch immer.

They told him it was over and done
He should look around for someone new and togetherness [1]
They swore he would never see her again
He knew even then they'd keep on going somehow
The lone golden ring on his small finger
is his proof she still loves him.

Chorus I
Und jeden Sonntag legt er ihr Blumen auf's Grab
wünscht ihr 'nen schönen, sonnigen Tag,
denn solang sie sich in ihm noch bewegt, weiß er, dass sie lebt.

And every Sunday he lays flowers on her grave
and wishes her a beautiful sunny day,
since as long she's still moving in him, he knows she's still alive.

Er hat in letzter Zeit zu viel Pfeife geraucht,
Hilde hat ihm gedroht, sie schmeiße ihn bald raus.
Er beschwerte sich über ihr verstreutes Wesen
noch immer hast du dein Buch nicht fertig gelesen.
Doch so schnell wie der Streit war, ging er auch wieder
zur Versöhnung spielte er ihre liebsten Lieder.

Lately he's been smoking too many pipes,
Hilde's threatened to kick him out.
He complained about her froward [2] ways
You still never read your books to the end.
But as fast as the strife came, it went away again
he played her favorite songs to make up.

Chorus IIUnd jeden Sontag legt er ihr Blumen auf's Grab
wünscht ih 'nen schönen, sonnigen Tag,
den solang sie sich in ihm noch beweget, weiß er, dass sie lebt.
Die Nachbarn werden das nie versteh'n,
doch sie haben die Hilde auch nicht geseh'n
wie sie gestern in ihrem Garten stand
in der grünen Schürze und 'nem Rechen in der Hand.

And every Sunday he lays flowers on her grave
and wishes her a beautiful sunny day,
since as long she's still moving in him, he knows she's still alive.
The neighbors will never understand
but then they also haven't seen Hilde
standing in her garden like she did yesterday,
in her green apron with a rake in her hand. 

Ehrlich Hilde, ich vermiss' dich.
Trag dich in mir, vergiss' nicht
gar nicht mehr lang, dann werd' ich vor dir steh'n
bis dahin muss ich hier nach dem Rechten [Rechnen] seh'n.

Honestly, Hilde, I miss you.
I take you with me, I don't forget.
It won't be long now, and then I'll be with you
but until then I have to stay here and look after the rake.

Repeat Chorus II

[1] So this is a really poor translation. To be fair, it's a little hard to capture the sense of it. More idiomatically I guess we'd say in English "he should get out and date some" or something similar, but it's not really appropriate here. The word Zweisamkeit is woodenly—but appropriately, I think—rendered "twosomeness" in English. It captures the idea of unity in two, almost an idea of atonement, by comparison to the German Zusammenhang, a relationship in which things "hang together." It's less casual than getting out on the dating scene.

This text is also bracketed. If adopting the text as linked, it would be, "He should look around for a new relationship." Harfst is a sort of slurry singer sometimes (in particular when he sings "... legt er ihr ...," since the g is so soft it's easy to mistake for a b), so I guess this is possible. Typos in lyrics online are so common that I'm willing to say I think I'm in the right here, but I wouldn't die on that hill.

[2] Froward is probably a bad choice. Streuen is cognate to the English word "strew," and the prefix ver intensifies this meaning: her ways (Wesen) are all strewn about, that is, they are scattered, undirected, distracted, all off the beaten path. Maybe it would be better to write about her "wayward ways" instead, and employ an alliterative device or some such. In any case, the contrast here is rich: his bad habit is smoking pipes, and the moral equivalent isn't finishing her books. It captures so well how relationships work sometimes.