# Galgenlieder

Galgenlieder (transl. Gallows Songs) is a collection of poems by Christian Morgenstern. Following ten years of writing work, it was first published in March 1905 by Bruno Cassirer.

## Poems

* Titelansage
* Motto. Dem Kinde im Manne
* Versuch 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 (University of California Press, 1964).
* Gallows Songs, translated by W.D. Snodgrass and Lore Segal (Michigan Press, 1967).
* Songs from the Gallows: Galgenlieder, translated by Walter Arndt (Yale University Press, 1993).
* Lullabies, Lyrics and Gallows Songs, translated by Anthea Bell with illustrations by Lisbeth Zwerger (North South Books, 1995).
* 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 The Fat Abbot Archived 2016-04-05 at the Wayback Machine in the Fall Winter 1962 edition, along with an essay illuminating subtle characteristics of the originals.

### Selected translations

| PROJECT REPORT To get this research undertook I bought a needle and the BOOK, and with the BOOK an old and hairy faintly starving dromedary. N.A.M., to help this thesis, gave, on loan, a standard Croesus. When the Croesus, missal-guided went to Heaven's gate and tried it, Peter spoke - "The Gospel proves a camel through a needle moves Sooner than we may admit a Rich man." (Christ, J., opus cit). Testing to confirm the Word, I loosed our camel, hunger-spurred, and motivated by a lure of buns behind the aperture, The subject, in a single try, squeezed grunting through the needle's eye; a graceless act. The camel crammed and Croesus muttered, "I'll be damned." | ONTOLOGY RECAPITULATES PHILOLOGY One night, a werewolf, having dined, left his wife to clean the cave and visited a scholar's grave asking, "How am I declined?" Whatever way the case was pressed the ghost could not decline his guest, but told the wolf (who'd been well-bred and crossed his paws before the dead), "The Iswolf, so we may commence, the Waswolf, simple past in tense, the Beenwolf, perfect; so construed, the Werewolf is subjunctive mood." The werewolf's teeth with thanks were bright, but, mitigating his delight, there rose the thought, how could one be hypostasized contingency? The ghost observed that few could live, if werewolves were indicative; whereat his guest perceived the role of Individual in the Whole. Condition contrary to fact, a single werewolf Being lacked but in his conjugation showed the full existence, a la mode. | DISINTERMENT Once there was a picket fence of interstitial excellence. An architect much liked its look; protected by the dark he took the interspaces from the slats and built a set of modern flats. The fence looked nothing as it should, since nothing twixt its pickets stood. This artefact soon fated it, the senate confiscated it, and marked the architect to go to Arctic - or Antarctico. |
| THE SHARK When Anthony addressed the fishes a simple shark became religious, adored the Host, denounced the Aryan, and turned, save Fridays, vegetarian. Seeds and weeds he bolted whole with faith as firm as amphibole, till vitals issued, overloaded, lapsed Pelagian and exploded. So littoral this revelation fish schools died of inspiration. The Saint, recalled to bless the lowly, said only: "Holy! Holy! Holy!" | THE MOONSHEEP The Moonsheep cropped the Furthest Clearing, Awaiting patiently the Shearing. The Moonsheep. The Moonsheep munched some grass and then Turned leisurely back to its Pen. The Moonsheep. Asleep, the Moonsheep dreamt he was The Universal Final Cause. The Moonsheep. Morning came. The sheep was dead. His Corpse was white, the Sun was red. The Moonsheep. | Σ Ξ MAN MET A Π MAN After many "if"s and "but"s, emendations, notes, and cuts, they bring their theory, complete, to lay, for Science, at his feet. But Science, sad to say it, he seldom heeds the laity - abstractedly he flips his hand, mutters "metaphysic" and bends himself again to start another curve on another chart. "Come," says Pitts, "his line is laid; the only points he'll miss, we've made." |
| THE AESTHETE When I sit, I sitting, tend to sit a seat with sense so fine that I can feel my sit-soul blend insensibly with seat's design. Seeking no support the while it assesses stools for style, leaving what the structure means for blind behinds of Philistines. | Zwei Trichter wandeln durch die Nacht. Durch ihres Rumpfs verengten Schacht fließt weißes Mondlicht still und heiter auf ihren Waldweg u. s. w. | Through darkest night two funnels go; and in their narrow necks below moonbeams gather to cast the better a light upon their path et c. |

## Visual poems

"Fisches Nachtgesang" ("Fish's Night Song") consists only of patterns of macrons and breves printed to suggest fish scales or ripples.
The Night Song of the Fish
ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˉ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˉ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˉ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˉ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˉ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ by Christian Morgenstern

## Musical settings

* Galgenlieder, six songs by Hanns Eisler 1917
* Galgenlieder a 3 cycle of 15 songs by Sofia Gubaidulina (b.1931)
* Galgenlieder a 5, cycle of 14 songs by Sofia Gubaidulina (b.1931)
* Galgenlieder, 10 songs for mezzo and trio by Anders Brødsgaard (b.1955)
* Galgenlieder, Op. 129, 8 songs for soprano' harp and tuba by Jan Koetsier (1911–2006)
* Galgenlieder, chamber composition by Jacqueline Fontyn (b.1930)
* Galgenlieder, five song cycle by Siegfried Strohbach for male choir a cappella.
* Galgenlieder, five songs "Mondendinge" ; "Der Hecht" ; "Die Mitternachtsmaus" ; "Das Wasser" ; "Galgenkindes Wiegenlied", by Vincent Bouchot (b.1966)
* Galgenlieder, 13 Movements for Saxophone Quartet and Children's Choir, by Lera Auerbach (b.1973)