One of my favourite posts from 2011. I thought I would share this one more time at this Christmas time. A Merry Christmas to you all and I wish you a peaceful 2017. Thank you for supporting the blog during the course of another year. Please keep sending in your contributions and comments; they keep it lively …
I guess that many of us enjoy the chapter in A Time of Gifts when the eighteen year old Paddy spent two nights in Stuttgart with two very pretty nineteen year old German girls, Lise and Annie. It was Epiphany, 6th January 1934, and they went to a party where Paddy had to pretend to be Mr Brown, a family friend. He particularly enjoyed singing a song about the Neckar Valley and Swabia. Paddy could not remember all the words but his stunning memory recalled most of them (page 66).
As we approach that time of year I thought we ought to share this delightful song.
Here is a link to the music sung by a German choir (it should download the file to your computer which is harmless and does still work). The words are below so that you too can sing along! Let’s hear it now, one two three ….
Refrain: 2. Kennt ihr das Land in deutschen Gauen, |
3. Kennt ihr das Land in deutschen Gauen, Wo Tann’ und Efeu immer grün, Wo starke Männer, edle Frauen In deutscher Kraft und Sitte blühn? Es ist das Land, . . . . .4. Kennt ihr das Land im deutschen Süden, So oft bewährt in Kampf und Streit, Dem zwischen seiner Wälder Frieden So frisch die deutsche Kraft gedeiht? Ja, wackre Deutsche laßt uns sein! Drauf reichet euch die deutsche Hand; Denn Schwabenland ist’s nicht allein: Das ganze Deutschland ist mein Heimatland! |
Patrick Leigh Fermor 