Galgenlieder


Galgenlieder is a collection of nonsensical poems by Christian Morgenstern. Following ten years of writing work, it was first published in March 1905 by Bruno Cassirer. And illustrations in a different edition were done by the famous Switzerland Cuban and surrealist artist, Paul Klee in 1914. Basically, in these poems are weird and half macabre sensorying around gallows which it was quite known for gallows humor. Some of them would actually feature a certain item, furniture, a tool, an animal, an insect, or even a lost limb.
Some parts of the poems even has the telling of characters. Palmstroem who is some type of person wandering around, expecting something to happen to him, but it doesn't, because he's lonely. The Gallows child who's a child of gallows hill has a trouble of thinking, but mostly he is to be a representation of a child who has depression. The Raven Ralph is a normal raven who ends up eating gallows food, and in the poem, he lays dead at the end. The moonsheep who is a normal sheep with white Fleece who is waiting to be sheared, also he's up passing away that very morning of the poem. Some of which theorized that the sheep supposed to be a representation of death and time. A knee is a disembodied knee who wanders around the earth after being shot in the war. Sophia, who is the executioner's servant, in one poem Where the hangman sings a song to her that he's dead, but she's nobly great. Some theorized that he is it supposed to represent Jack ketch.
Film Adaptations
Canti della forca is a live action stop motion film made in italy in 2014. Animated and Directed by Stefano Bessoni features five poems in it, while focusing on the creator himself.

Poems

  • Titelansage " T
  • Motto. Dem Kinde sophia im Manne
  • Versu.ch einer Einleitung
  • Wie die Galgenlieder entstanden
  • Lass die Moleküle rasen
  • Bundeslied der Galgenbrüder
  • Galgenbruders Lied an Sophie, die Henkersmaid
  • Nein!
  • Das Gebet
  • Das Grosse Lalula
  • Der Zwölf-Elf
  • Das Mondschaf
  • Lunovis
  • Der Rabe Ralf
  • Fisches Nachtgesang
  • Galgenbruders Frühlingslied
  • Das Hemmed
  • Das Problem
  • Neue Bildungen, der Natur vorgeschlagen
  • Die Trichter
  • Der Tanz
  • Das Knie
  • Der Seufzer
  • Bim, Bam, Bum
  • Das ästhetische Wiesel
  • Der Schaukelstuhl auf der verlassenen Terrasse
  • Die Beichte des Wurms
  • Das Weiblein mit der Kunkel
  • Die Mitternachtsmaus
  • Himmel und Erde
  • Der Walfafisch oder das Überwasser
  • Mondendinge
  • Die Schildkröte
  • Der Hecht
  • Der Nachtschelm und das Siebenschwein
  • Die beiden Esel
  • Der Steinochs
  • Tapetenblume
  • Das Wasser
  • Die Luft
  • Wer denn?
  • Der Lattenzaun
  • Die beiden Flaschen
  • Das Lied vom blonden Korken
  • Der Würfel
  • Kronprätendenten
  • Die Weste
  • Philanthropisch
  • Der Mond
  • Die Westküsten
  • Unter Zeiten
  • Unter Schwarzkünstlern
  • Der Traum der Magd
  • Zäzilie
  • Das Nasobem
  • Anto-Logie
  • Die Hysterix
  • Die Probe
  • Im Jahre 19000
  • Der Gaul
  • Der heroische Pudel
  • Das Huhn, Möwenlied
  • Igel und Agel
  • Der Werwolf
  • Die Fingur
  • Das Fest Des Wüstlings
  • Km 21
  • Geiß und Schleiche
  • Der Purzelbaum
  • Die zwei Wurzeln
  • Das Geburtslied oder die Zeichen
  • Galgenkindes Wiegenlied
  • Wie sich das Galgenkind die Monatsnamen merkt
  • Galgenberg

    English translations

  • The Gallows Songs. Christian Morgenstern's Galgenlieder, translated by Max Knight.
  • Gallows Songs, translated by W.D. Snodgrass and Lore Segal.
  • Songs from the Gallows: Galgenlieder, translated by Walter Arndt.
  • Lullabies, Lyrics and Gallows Songs, translated by Anthea Bell with illustrations by Lisbeth Zwerger.
  • A number of these poems were translated into English by Jerome Lettvin with explanations of Morgensterns wordplay methods and their relationship to Lewis Carroll's methods. These were published in a journal called in the Fall Winter 1962 edition, along with an essay illuminating subtle characteristics of the originals.

    Selected translations

Visual poems

"Fisches Nachtgesang" consists only of patterns of macrons and breves printed to suggest fish scales or ripples.

Musical settings