op.21 Nr.1, für gemischten Chor; Tx. Bertold Brecht
An old woman one came along,
who had no more bread to eat.
The bread had been eaten by the soldiers!
She fell into the gutter, it was cold.
Then she wasn't hungry any more.
And the birds fell silent in the woods!
All the mountain peaks are silent
in all the treetops you can hardly feel a whisper!
Then a death doctor came in,
who said: the old woman is insisting on her certificate.
So they buried the hungry old woman.
and so the old woman didn't say anything more!
Only the doctor laughed about the old woman
The birds also fell silent in the woods!
All the mountain peaks are silent.
Then a single man came in;
he had no time for these rules and regulations.
He found a snag in the matter.
He was a sort of friend of the old woman.
He said: a person must be able to eat,
a person, if you please!
Whereupon the birds fell silent in the woods!
All the mountain peaks are silent
in all the treetops you can hardly feel a whisper!
Then a policeman came in,
with a rubber truncheon.
He beat the back of the man's head to pulp!
And the man didn't say anything more!
But the policeman said, loud and clear:
So! The birds in the woods can shut up!
All the mountain peaks are to be silent
in all the treetops you can hardly feel a whisper!
All of a sudden four red men came in,
they wanted to talk about the soldiers!
But the soldiers spoke with machine guns
and the red men didn't say anything more,
but they had a furrow on their foreheads!
And the birds fell silent in the woods!
All the mountain peaks are silent, are silent!
Then a great red bear came in,
he didn't know anything about customs,
because he came from across the sea,
and he ate up the birds in the tree!
And then the birds were no longer silent!
All the mountain peaks are restless!
In all the treetops you can now feel a whisper!
