Hannibal Rising
Ein Mannlein stehl im Walde ganz still und stumm, Es hat von lauter Purpur ein Mantlein um, Sagt, wer mag das Mannlein sein. Das da steht im Walde allein, Mit dem purporroten Mantelein.
A little man stood in the wood quite quietly and silently, It has from loud magenta on a little coat, Saying who may be the little man. This stands there in the wood only, With pure magenta little coat.
http://www.weinsteinco.com/hannibal/
posted by SamuRyan at 9:17 PM
5 Comments:
After posting this, I wrote down the lyrics and put the paper by my front door. The next morning one of my neighbors was walking her dogs. She's from Germany so I showed her the paper and she immediately sang the song. She told me that "The little man wore a coat of pure purple" and that the song was put into the play Hanzel and Gretle.
I did not tell her that after Hannibal killed a man and the man's blood spilled down his body, Hannibal said, "A pure purple coat, indeed." But I didn't know that till I asked her. Wow, that's some good writing.
Hi, I've just finished translating Hannibal Rising into Chinese and I'd be delighted if you could discuss the book and share your insight with me. hun27@shaw.ca
Eddie from Vancouver
fkHey I ran across your blog entry whilst looking for origin of the "little man" song in Hannibal Rising. I, too, am reading and loving it.
My undergraduate german was still good enough to let me loosely translate the lyrics, and I guessed that it was a riddle about a mushroom ("Who is this little man so quiet and still dressed in a little mantle of red/purple?"), but I didn't know about the connection to Hansel and Gretel before I started looking around online.
Its a lovely echo isn't it, of little Hannibal and Mischa hiding in the forest, and the mushrooms figure again when young Hannibal cooks and eats Dortlich's cheeks with morels.
In honor I cooked a nice chicked ragout--a kind of Hunter's Chicken---last night for dinner: with five kinds of mushrooms. None of them wore a purple coat, though--aren't all those poisonous?
Finished Hannibal Rising, and was also curious of the song. FYI, found this online:
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/ANE/ANE-DIGEST/1999/v1999.n314
Read into the 3rd posting.
Harris had me doing this many years back, piqueing my curiosity and compelling me to research William Blake. That was long before the convenience of internet.
Thank you for the web site about the little poem. I, too, had done some research about the William Blake paintings while reading Red Dragon. The mushroom reference added a lot to my reading.
Now I have to find the tune...
Vinnygret
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