Ein Freund, ein guter Freund ...

 

 

You have to give it to the Germans for making a whole song-and-dance act out of the word "Freund", perhaps because to them — or at least to the Germans I used to knew — a "Freund" is so much more than a 'friend' is to an English-speaker who'd just as soon use the word 'acquaintance' if it weren't so much harder to spell.

An acquaintance whose neighbour I'd been in Camp 1 at Panguna on the Bougainville Copper Project found me through my Bougainville website, after which we kept writing emails, followed by an unexpected visit.

There was nothing much connecting us other than having worked - albeit in unrelated occupations: he an engineer, and I an accountant - on the same construction project, and having been neighbours in the same construction camp, but then so had thousands of others, and the connection slowly fizzled out. Until today when this email arrived:

"Been doing a lot of travel; early last year in the USA for five weeks, and recently eight weeks in New Zealand, of which four weeks were spent camping. End of the month, train to Bangkok for a week, then back to house maintenance issues which are never-ending. Healthwise pretty good but not getting any younger. Trust all is good with you."

There was a time when I would've envied him his travels, but all I could manage this time was a relieved, "Better you than me", because my travelling days are well and truly behind me. And not because I've become immobile and feeble - which I haven't, not yet, anyway - but because, for the first time in my life, I feel totally at home where I am.

Of course, at my age - particularly at my age - I can always do with another acquaintance, if not indeed a friend, to replenish the thinned-out ranks, and so I replied. Something may come of it, or nothing may come of it, it doesn't matter. That's the other thing about getting old: nothing matters other than watching the next morning's sunrise.

Perhaps I'll greet tomorrow morning's sunrise by singing along with Heinz Rühmann (who, incidentally, was my "Patenonkel" before he became too famous for poor people like us), "Ein Freund, ein guter Freund ..."

 

Sonniger Tag! Wonniger Tag! Klopfendes Herz und der Motor ein Schlag! Lachendes Ziel! Lachender Start und eine herrliche Fahrt! Rom und Madrid nehmen wir mit. So ging das Leben im Taumel zu dritt! Über das Meer, über das Land, haben wir eines erkannt: Ein Freund, ein guter Freund, das ist das beste was es gibt auf der Welt. Ein Freund bleibt immer Freund und wenn die ganze Welt zusammenfällt. Drum sei auch nie betrübt,     wenn dein Schatz dich nicht mehr liebt. Ein Freund, ein guter Freund, dass ist der größte Schatz, den's gibt. Ein Freund, ein wirklicher Freund, das ist doch das Größte und Beste und Schönste,     was es gibt auf der Welt. Ein Freund bleibt immer dir Freund, und wenn auch die ganze die schlechte     die große die schreckliche, alberne Welt vor den Augen zusammen dir fällt. Drum sei auch niemals betrübt,     wenn dein Schatz dich auch nicht mehr liebt. Ein Freund, ein wirklicher Freund, das ist der größte Schatz, den’s gibt.

 

 

I was wrong about the Germans being the only ones to make a sing-and-dance act out of the word "Freund". The French did the same out of the word "bon copain", and they seem to have made a better fist of it than did Heinz Rühmann. As for an English version, there simply isn't one.

 

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