The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #112906   Message #2397275
Posted By: Jim Dixon
24-Jul-08 - 10:56 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: The Ballad of Francois Villon
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ballad of Francois Villon
Google Book Search finds that the words and music are printed in:

Biermann, Wolf. The Wire Harp; Ballads, Poems, Songs. (Translation by Eric Bentley of Die Drahtharfe.) New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968.

WorldCat might help you find the book in a library near you.

I'm not able to copy the whole song, but I think I can clarify your questionable lines:

Ere like a dog they buried him...
And when a friend's there and maybe three...
How he will fall a-cursing at the thought of Fat Margo!...
With all those supplications he ofttimes escaped the noose,...
"While stealing or while kissing...
As free as bird in wood...
The vodka schnapps from Adlershof...
ND is hard for him to read...
But nothing here can long be hid and out came the whole story...
Of Kafka and the bat I fear...
I gave up such impertinence when I was—seven, was it?...
I am a pious churchgoer, a Caspar Milquetoast I....

I can't explain all these allusions, though!