House, lake and trees.

LOVE SONG FROM A BAD TIME

We were not friends to one another then

And yet for love it did not seem too soon

And so we lay there in each other’s arms

Stranger to each other than the moon.

We’d likely fight about the price of fish

If we should meet at a marketstall today

We were not friends to one another then

Although in one another’s arms we lay.

SEND ME A LEAF . . .

Send me a leaf, but from a little tree

That grows no nearer your house

Than half an hour away. For then

You will have to walk, you will get strong and I

Shall thank you for the pretty leaf.

WHEN I HAVE TO LEAVE YOU DEAR . . .

When I have to leave you dear

For all the horses, men and gear

The queen’s great ship will lie there waiting at the quay.

Take another sweetheart, Minnie

For our ship goes to Virginny

And our love, our love my dear can never be.

And we’ll stand there thousands strong

Wave you off with hurrah and song

As the queen’s great ship sets sail for far-off lands.

Remember, Jimmy, as I kiss you

I will always always miss you

When I one day take another man.

NOTES

These notes provide, for every poem: the original German title; the volume and page reference to the standard German edition (the Große kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe—BFA) on which our versions are, for the most part, based; the date or approximate date of composition; the date of first publication (indicated by P) insofar as we have been able to ascertain that (for poems first published after Brecht’s death we have not always gone beyond the principal Suhrkamp Verlag publications); and the initials of the translator.