Coffee has always been a great source of inspiration.
Composer Johann S. Bach liked it so much that he decided to compose
a cantata dedicated to coffee:
Listen to the Kaffeekantate!
Symphonically Good with a Caffitaly coffee
Bach Cantata Translations
BWV 211 – “Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht”
Kaffeekantate [Coffee Cantata]
1. Recitative T
Be quiet, do not chat,
And listen to what happens now:
Here comes Mr. Schlendrian
with his daughter Liesgen,
He grumbles like a grizzly bear;
hear for yourselves, what she has done to him!
2. Aria B
With children, aren’t there
a hundred thousand aggravations!
Whatever I, all the time and every day,
tell my daughter Liesgen,
slides on by with no effect.
3. Recitative B S
Schlendrian
You naughty child, you wild girl,
ah! When will I achieve my goal:
get rid of the coffee for my sake!
Liesgen
Father sir, but do not be so harsh!
If I couldn’t, three times a day,
be allowed to drink my little cup of coffee,
in my anguish I will turn into
a shriveled-up roast goat.
4. Aria S
Ah! How sweet coffee tastes,
more delicious than a thousand kisses,
milder than muscatel wine.
Coffee, I have to have coffee,
and, if someone wants to pamper me,
ah, then bring me coffee as a gift!
5. Recitative B S
Schlendrian
If you don’t give up coffee for me,
you won’t go to any wedding parties,
or even go out for walks.
Liesgen
Okay then!
Only leave my coffee alone!
Schlendrian
Now I’ve got the little monkey!
I will buy you no whalebone dress of the latest fashion.
Liesgen
I can easily put up with that.
Schlendrian
You may not go to the window
and watch anyone passing by!
Liesgen
This too; but be merciful
and let my coffee stay!
Schlendrian
You’ll also not receive from my hand
a silver or gold ribbon
for your bonnet!
Liesgen
Sure, sure! Just leave me my pleasure!
Schlendrian
You naughty Liesgen,
you grant all of that to me?
6. Aria B
Girls of stubborn mind
are not easily won over.
But if the right spot is touched,
Oh! Then one can happily get far.
7. Recitative B S
Schlendrian
Now do what your father says!
Liesgen
In everything but coffee.
Schlendrian
All right then! So you will have to content yourself with never having a husband.
Liesgen
Ah yes! Father, a husband!
Schlendrian
I swear that it will never happen.
Liesgen
Until I give up coffee?
All right! Coffee, lie there now forever!
Father sir, listen, I won’t drink none.
Schlendrian
So finally you’ll get one!
8. Aria S
Even today,
dear father, make it happen!
Ah, a husband!
Indeed, this will suit me well!
If it would only happen soon,
that at last, instead of coffee,
before I even go to bed,
I might gain a sturdy lover!
9. Recitative T
Now old Schlendrian goes and seeks
How he, for his daughter Liesgen,
might soon acquire a husband;
but Liesgen secretly spreads the word:
no suitor comes in my house
unless he has promised to me himself
and has it also inserted into the marriage contract,
that I shall be permitted
to brew coffee whenever I want.
10. Chorus (Trio) S T B
Cats do not give up mousing,
girls remain coffee-sisters.
The mother adores her coffee-habit,
and grandma also drank it,
so who can blame the daughters!