Hallo Erika und Heinz,
das erinnert mich an die etwas unselige "Wacht am Rhein" mit dem Refrain: "Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein ..." im Sinne von "du kannst ruhig schlafen - es droht keine Gefahr".
Viele Grüße
Uwe (Segelke)
Hallo Uwe
Ja, da hast Du Recht.... Ich lebe schon sehr lange in England und muss mich
doch einmal ein bischen mit den alten Deutschen Liedern befassen. Sie geben
ja die Werte und Wertschaetzungen der Zeit wieder. Ich hatte da gar nicht
mehr dran gedacht.
Kennst Du eine Webseite, die alte Lieder von vergangenen Jahrhunderten und
bestimmten Gegenden beschreibt? Meine Vorfahren kamen hauptsaechlich aus
Thueringen, Pommern, und Hannover.
Viele Gruesse
Erika
(Leeds, England)
Hallo Uwe,
meine Frage war die: handelt es sich a) einfach um den Wunsch für eine gute Nacht
oder ist es b) in dem Sinne gemeint : "wenn das geschilderte eintrifft:
1) By''n bey hard times comes a-knocking at ghe door
2) The time has come when the people have to part
3) a few more days till we totter on the road
dann gute Nacht?
Vielleicht ist die zweite Variante auch nur hier unten im Süden üblich?
Gruß Heinz
-----Original-Nachricht-----
Hallo all,
I'll do this in English since my German would just be mangled.
Perhaps this is obvious and I'm just missing the point of your question, but the singer is a slave who has been or is about to be sold "down South" to settle his owner's debts, which here means he is being or is going to be worked to death (in a short time) in the sugar cane fields. In the line you are focused on, he is lamenting leaving the relatively better situation he had in Kentucky. Generally, the further South you went as a slave, the worse you were treated, and Kentucky was as far North as you could go. Ohio was a free state. This was a strong anti-slavery song at the time it was written, before the Civil War.
I never really dwelt on it much growing up, but in this context, "good night" is more like "good bye" when you leave someplace or somebody you are visiting in the evening. He's saying good bye to his way of life in Kentucky. The sun is setting, so to speak, on that part of his life.
Also, Heimat seems to make more sense than home because it's his lifestyle and community he's lamenting the loss of. He'll have a ramshackle cabin in which to live in either place.
MfG,
Don Meyer
Born and raised in Kentucky, currently sitting in a hotel room in Osnabrück
Hallo,
Hier die übersetzte Seite von Wikipedia über das Lied Old Kentucky Home:
Grüße,
Susanne (Sweeney)