> The Young Tradition > Songs > The Hungry Child
The Hungry Child (Das irdische Leben)
[trad., Judith Piepe]
Das irdische Leben is from the German poem collection by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1806/1808), where oral tradition was given as source. Judith Piepe translated the poem into English and called it The Procrastination Song.
The Young Tradition sang it as The Hungry Child in 1967 on their second album, So Cheerfully Round. Heather Wood commented in the album liner notes:
We have a friend called Judith Piepe. She once came into collision with a Folk Drag, who knew All About The English Tradition and could tell a traditional song any day. So Judith wrote him a couple, which he averred were rural gems from the seventeen hundreds. When she told him the truth he went away and hasn't been heard from since. Splendid. So, we thought, was one of the songs. Judith calls it The Procrastination Song; we prefer to call it The Hungry Child.
Sound Tradition sang Hungry Child in 2017 on their CD Well Met, My Friend. They noted:
The lyrics are a translation from a German folk song first published in 1808 and described at that time as coming from ‘oral tradition’ Our version is based on the singing of The Young Tradition. We've experimented with different endings, but this is a bleak song whichever way you look at it.
Lyrics
Das irdische Leben | The Young Tradition sing The Hungry Child |
---|---|
A young child to its mother ran | |
“Mutter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich. |
Now when the field it had been ploughed |
“Mutter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich. |
Now when the field it had been reaped |
Now when the wheat it had been threshed | |
“Mutter, ach Mutter, es hungert mich. |
Now when the wheat it had been ground |
Acknowledgements
For more information see the Mudcat Café thread Lyr Req: The Hungry Child.