Why, Nigel? If you were a young lady waiting to meet your soldier sweetheart, where would you stand? Over in a dark corner where he couldn't see you?

The "sweetheart of the nation" line suggests to me only that this fictional lady of song was beloved of the Germans (probably male and female). (The actress Mary Pickford was called "America's sweetheart" in the 1920s.   She was hardly thought of as a prostitute.)

I'd wager that if the soldiers who sang the song (especially the bawdy versions) chose to cast Lili as a prostitute, it had more to do with their own situation as soldiers (many of whom had no female companionship overseas except with prostitutes) than with the words of the song.

I cannot, for the life of me, see anything in the original German lyrics or in the various English versions I've seen that suggest that Lili is anything other than the singer's true love. And the lyrics come from Hans Leif's poem about a composite of two girlfriends -- not about hookers.

Soldiers sing lots of bawdy songs, especially during war time. They may also read double-entendre into lines where it was not intended.

I can't speak for the Germans who love the song, but I get many requests for this song from men and women of the WWII generation, and they seem to regard it as a very romantic song, not a bawdy or frivolous one. (Now, "Mademoiselle from Armentières," that's another story!)


Genie


Nigel, that thread (that you linked to) has been deleted.