Også Konrad leser lyrikk - Stephen C. Foster

Bob Dylan fikk ikke Nobels litteraturpris i år heller. Derfor vil jeg slå et slag for poesien, særlig den sungne sådanne. I dag: Stephen C. Fosters Hard Times (Come Again no More) (1854), fremført av en rekke nord-amerikanske artister som Bob Dylan (selvsagt), Bruce Springsteen, McGarrigle-familien (selvsagt), Nancy Griffith og Willie Nelson.

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,

While we all sup sorrow with the poor;

There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;

Oh Hard times come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,

There are frail forms fainting at the door;

Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say

Oh hard times come again no more.

There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,

With a worn heart whose better days are over:

Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,

Oh hard times come again no more.

Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,

Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore

Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave

Oh hard times come again no more.

refreng:
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,

Hard Times, hard times, come again no more

Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;

Oh hard times come again no more.