Nanna's Lied Translation

Found Here:

Nanna's Song:

Gentlemen, with seventeen years of age under my belt
I came up on the Love Market,
and I have learned much.
Much of it gave evil,
yet that was the game,
but, I have a lot to be blamed for.
(When all is said and done, I'm only a human being, too.)

Thanks be to God that it all goes by so quickly,
the love as well as the grief, too.
Where are the tears of yesterday evening?
Where are the snows of yesteryear?

As one goes through the years
it is easier in the Love Market, to be sure,
and you embrace the multitudes there.
But feelings
become astonishingly cool
when one doesn't ration them.
(When all is said and done, each reserve must come to an end.)

Thanks be to God that it all goes by so quickly,
the love as well as the grief, too.
Where are the tears of yesterday evening?
Where are the snows of yesteryear?

And even when one learns the trade really well
in the Fairground of Love:
to change desire into small change
is never easy.
Now, it is achieved.
Yet meanwhile, one grows older, as well.
(When all is said and done, one can't stay seventeen forever.)

Thanks be to God that it all goes by so quickly,
the love as well as the grief, too.
Where are the tears of yesterday evening?
Where are the snows of yesteryear?

Authorship
Translation from German to English copyright © 2004 by Sean Mabrey