# What Beethoven tells me



## wzg (Jun 17, 2013)

Beethoven 9 has the following text:

Wem der große Wurf gelungen,
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein;
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
Mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund!

For me, it sounds like:

B: Do you have a friend?
Me: No.
B: A girlfriend?
Me: No.
B: Anyone on earth?
Me: No.
B: DIE!

What do you think, please?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

You need help perhaps, professional I mean, and I am not kidding.


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## wzg (Jun 17, 2013)

Thank you, Rogerx. OK, if I see a shrink, and he suggests I kill myself, what would you think of that, please?


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

He has a shrunken head........


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

wzg said:


> Thank you, Rogerx. OK, if I see a shrink, and he suggests I kill myself, what would you think of that, please?


No professional will tell you that, you are in the wrong place, this is a music site not psychiatric help.


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## wzg (Jun 17, 2013)

OK. I mean: What do you think this text means? Do you think there's some shortcoming? Thank you.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

wzg said:


> Beethoven 9 has the following text:
> 
> Wem der große Wurf gelungen,
> Eines Freundes Freund zu sein;
> ...


You need to consult someone who can properly translate the text.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

If you choose to be expansively cynical, you could interpret it that way -- but blame Schiller, not Beethoven.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

"For me, it sounds like:

B: Do you have a friend?
Me: No.
B: A girlfriend?
Me: No.
B: Anyone on earth?
Me: No.
B: DIE!"

A worse distortion and translation is not possible. Schiller does not put everything in the negative. How could he when the thrust of the entire poem is about celebrating the Brotherhood of Man?

Schiller's Ode to Joy in German and English translation:
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Ode_to_Joy


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

wzg said:


> B: DIE!


That's German for THE!


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

wzg said:


> OK. I mean: What do you think this text means? Do you think there's some shortcoming? Thank you.


I think it's very simple, really. When I hear it, I translate it thusly:

"Oh la la la la la la la, dum de dum de dum de dum!
La la la la la la icecream, peanut butter, hear I come!
La la ice cream, blah blah phish food,
Ben and Gerry's la de dum,
Chocolate, chewy caramel, cookie dough,
Do-re-mi-fa-so-de dum!""

And so on. Recently they added new flavours, but it translates easy into them as well... :tiphat:


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

It's just a wrong interpretation, and a rather sad one, perhaps reflecting the sad times we live in, but it's not the message of Schiller or Beethoven. A better interpretation:

B: Have you made friends with that person trying to be your friend?
Me: No.
B: Have you won a girlfriend?
Me: No.
B: Then you will, obviously, slink away and cry. But there is a solution!
Me: What's that?
B: Make friends with that person trying to be your friend! Is that so hard?


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