Dear Gunnar and/or Nancy,

What's the title of the poem? I've got a long out-of-print copy of some of
Heine's poems, including "The Two Grenadiers" that Robert Schumann composed
music for, incorperating a few bars of the (then-banned) "Marseilles" near
the end. Gunnar, maybe you can tell me, did Heine write a poem about the
"Mouse Tower" medieval legend? When I was a kid in the mid 60s, we were in
Germany and I saw the famous "Mouse Tower" (on an island in the middle of
the Rhine maybe?). The story was about a cruel bishop (?) or minor noble
(?) who, when asked for some bread by starving peasants, told them he would
feed them in a certain building. When they were in, he locked it and burnt
it down, commenting that their screams sounded like mice. Immediately
hundreds of mice went for him. He ran to his tower, but they followed and
killed him. I don't know why I think Heine used that, but I do know that he
wrote another poem on the Lorelei legend. Everything was so long ago, it's
hard to remember the specifics.

Thanks,
Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: Gunnar Jauch [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 8:29 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: German sounds


am 11.2.2003 15:10 Uhr schrieb Nancy Gish unter [log in to unmask]:

> It's Heinrich Heine. Here is the rest:
>
> Du bist wie eine Blume,
> So hold und schon und rein;
> Ich schau' dich an, und Wehmut
> Schleicht mir ins Herz hinein.

You are like a flower
So dear and beautiful and pure
I look at you and sadness
Is creeping in to my heart.
>
> Mir ist, als ob ich die Hände
> Aufs Haupt dir legen sollt',
> Betend, das Gott dich erhalte
> So rein und schon und hold.

I feel as though I ought to
Lay my hands upon your head,
Praying that God will keep you
So pure and beautiful and dear.

>
>
> I cannot make the umlauts or the sign for the "s" sound in "das" in this
> email even though I have it for my word processing, so apologies to
> Gunnar especially.
> Nancy


No need to, dear Nancy. In modern German, the ß, signifying a sharp s, is
written as a double s.

G