''Galgenlieder'' () is a collection of poems by

Christian Morgenstern Christian Otto Josef Wolfgang Morgenstern (6 May 1871 – 31 March 1914) was a German writer and poet from Munich. Morgenstern married Margareta Gosebruch von Liechtenstern on 7 March 1910. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin ...

. Following ten years of writing work, it was first published in March 1905 by Bruno Cassirer. And illustrations in a different edition were done by the famous Switzerland Cuban and surrealist artist,

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

in 1914. Basically, in these poems are weird and half macabre sensorying around

gallows A gallows (or less precisely scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sa ...

which it was quite known for

gallows humor Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

. Some of them would actually feature a certain item, furniture, a tool, an animal, an insect, or even a lost limb. Some parts of the poems even has the telling of characters. Palmstroem who is some type of person wandering around, expecting something to happen to him, but it doesn't, because he's lonely. The Gallows child who's a child of gallows hill has a trouble of thinking, but mostly he is to be a representation of a child who has depression. The Raven Ralph is a normal

raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

who ends up eating gallows food, and in the poem, he lays dead at the end. The moonsheep who is a normal

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

with white Fleece who is waiting to be sheared, also he's up passing away that very morning of the poem. Some of which theorized that the sheep supposed to be a representation of

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

and

time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

. A knee is a disembodied

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

who wanders around the earth after being shot in the war. Sophia, who is the executioner's

servant A domestic worker is a person who works within a residence and performs a variety of household services for an individual, from providing cleaning and household maintenance, or cooking, laundry and ironing, or care for children and elderly ...

, in one poem Where the hangman sings a song to her that he's dead, but she's nobly great. Some theorized that he is it supposed to represent Jack ketch. Film Adaptations Canti della forca (Gallows Songs) is a

live action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games o ...

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

film made in

italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in 2014. Animated and Directed by Stefano Bessoni features five poems in it, while focusing on the creator himself.

Poems

* Titelansage " T * Motto. Dem Kinde sophia im Manne * Versu.ch einer Einleitung * Wie die Galgenlieder entstanden * Lass die Moleküle rasen * Bundeslied der Galgenbrüder * Galgenbruders Lied an Sophie, die Henkersmaid * Nein! * Das Gebet * Das Grosse Lalula * Der Zwölf-Elf * Das Mondschaf * Lunovis * Der Rabe Ralf * Fisches Nachtgesang * Galgenbruders Frühlingslied * Das Hemmed * Das Problem * Neue Bildungen, der Natur vorgeschlagen * Die Trichter * Der Tanz * Das Knie * Der Seufzer * Bim, Bam, Bum * Das ästhetische Wiesel * Der Schaukelstuhl auf der verlassenen Terrasse * Die Beichte des Wurms * Das Weiblein mit der Kunkel * Die Mitternachtsmaus * Himmel und Erde * Der Walfafisch oder das Überwasser * Mondendinge * Die Schildkröte * Der Hecht * Der Nachtschelm und das Siebenschwein * Die beiden Esel * Der Steinochs * Tapetenblume * Das Wasser * Die Luft * Wer denn? * Der Lattenzaun * Die beiden Flaschen * Das Lied vom blonden Korken * Der Würfel * Kronprätendenten * Die Weste * Philanthropisch * Der Mond * Die Westküsten * Unter Zeiten * Unter Schwarzkünstlern * Der Traum der Magd * Zäzilie * Das Nasobem * Anto-Logie * Die Hysterix * Die Probe * Im Jahre 19000 * Der Gaul * Der heroische Pudel * Das Huhn, Möwenlied * Igel und Agel * Der Werwolf * Die Fingur * Das Fest Des Wüstlings * Km 21 * Geiß und Schleiche * Der Purzelbaum * Die zwei Wurzeln * Das Geburtslied oder die Zeichen * Galgenkindes Wiegenlied * Wie sich das Galgenkind die Monatsnamen merkt * Galgenberg

English translations

*''The Gallows Songs. Christian Morgenstern's Galgenlieder'', translated by Max Knight (

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, 1964). *''Gallows Songs'', translated by W.D. Snodgrass and Lore Segal (Michigan Press, 1967). *''Songs from the Gallows: Galgenlieder'', translated by Walter Arndt (

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

, 1993). *''Lullabies, Lyrics and Gallows Songs'', translated by

Anthea Bell Anthea Bell (10 May 1936 – 18 October 2018) was an English translator of literary works, including children's literature, from French, German and Danish language, Danish. These include ''The Castle (novel), The Castle'' by Franz Kafka, ''Aus ...

with illustrations by Lisbeth Zwerger (North South Books, 1995). *A number of these poems were translated into English by Jerome Lettvin with explanations of Morgensterns wordplay methods and their relationship to

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

's methods. These were published in a journal calle
The Fat Abbot
in the Fall Winter 1962 edition, along with an essay illuminating subtle characteristics of the originals.

Selected translations

Visual poems

"Fisches Nachtgesang" ("Fish's Night Song") consists only of patterns of macrons and breves printed to suggest fish scales or ripples.Gillian Lathey - Translating Children's Literature -2015 Page 108 131762131X "Bell's translation of other poems in the collection ranges from non-intervention in "Fisches Nachtgesang" ("Fish's Night Song"), which consists entirely of patterns of dashes and brackets turned sideways to replicate waves and bubbles made in ...

Musical settings

*Galgenlieder, six songs by

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was a German-Austrian composer. He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The ...

1917 *Galgenlieder a 3 cycle of 15 songs by

Sofia Gubaidulina Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina (24 October 1931 – 13 March 2025) was a Soviet and Russian composer of Modernism (music), modernist Holy minimalism, sacred music. She was highly prolific, producing numerous Chamber music, chamber, Orchestra, orch ...

(b.1931) *Galgenlieder a 5, cycle of 14 songs by

(b.1931) *Galgenlieder, 10 songs for mezzo and trio by Anders Brødsgaard (b.1955) *Galgenlieder, Op. 129, 8 songs for soprano' harp and tuba by Jan Koetsier (1911–2006) *Galgenlieder, chamber composition by Jacqueline Fontyn (b.1930) *Galgenlieder, five song cycle by

Siegfried Strohbach Siegfried Strohbach (27 November 1929 – 11 July 2019) was a German composer and conductor. He founded and directed choirs and the vocal ensemble Collegium Cantorum and is notable for the composition of choral music. He was a conductor of major t ...

for male choir a cappella. *Galgenlieder, five songs "Mondendinge" ; "Der Hecht" ; "Die Mitternachtsmaus" ; "Das Wasser" ; "Galgenkindes Wiegenlied", by Vincent Bouchot (b.1966) *Galgenlieder, 13 Movements for Saxophone Quartet and Children's Choir, by Lera Auerbach (b.1973)

References

{{reflist 1905 poems