Is anyone familiar with a WWII love poem to a women named Lili Marlene? If so do you know the author?

Question

I found this poem hand written on the last page of a copy of Bill Mauldin's book - Up Front

Answer 1

Actually, it was a song - very popular during World War I
Lili Marleen, translated by Tommie Connor, 1944

"Underneath the lantern,
By the barrack gate
Darling I remember
The way you used to wait
T'was there that you whispered tenderly,
That you loved me,
You'd always be,
My Lilli of the Lamplight,
My own Lilli Marlene

Time would come for roll call,
Time for us to part,
Darling I'd caress you
And press you to my heart,
And there 'neath that far-off lantern light,
I'd hold you tight ,
We'd kiss good night,
My Lilli of the Lamplight,
My own Lilli Marlene

Orders came for sailing,
Somewhere over there
All confined to barracks
was more than I could bear
I knew you were waiting in the street
I heard your feet,
But could not meet,
My Lilly of the Lamplight,
my own Lilly Marlene

Resting in our billets,
Just behind the lines
Even tho' we're parted,
Your lips are close to mine
You wait where that lantern softly gleams,
Your sweet face seems
To haunt my dreams
My Lilly of the Lamplight,
My own Lilly Marlene"

Hans Leip 1915

Lili Marleen

Surely the favourite song of soldiers during World War II, Lili Marleen became the unofficial anthem of the foot soldiers of both forces in the war.

Original German lyrics from a poem The Song of a Young Sentry by World War I German soldier, Hans Leip *22.9.1893 in Hamburg, †6.6.1983 in Fruthwilen, near Frauenfeld (Thurgau), Switzerland who wrote these verses before going to the Russian front in 1915, combining the name of his girlfriend, Lili (the daughter of a grocer), with that of a friend's girlfriend or by a wave given to Leip, while he was on sentry duty, by a young nurse named "Marleen" as she disappeared into the evening fog.

His poem was later published in a collection of his poetry in 1937.

The poems caught the attention of Norbert Schultze (born 1911 in Braunschweig, died 14.10.2002), who set this poem to music in 1938.

Schulze was already rich and famous before the success of The Girl under the Lantern, who awaited her lover by the barrack gate. His operas, film scores, marches and tunes for politically inspired lyrics were successful. In 1945 the Allies told Schultze to forget about composing but he got back to it in 1948.

The tune had a rocky road. The propaganda secretary of the Nationalist-Socialist party, Joseph Goebbels didn't like the song, he wanted a march. Lale Andersen didn't want to sing it and the DJ who was supposed to get it on the charts also gave it two thumbs down.

Recorded just before the war by Lale Andersen (Eulalia Bunnenberg), the song sold just 700 copies, until German Forces Radio began broadcasting it to the Afrika Korps in 1941.

The song was immediately banned in Germany, for its portentous character, which did nothing to slow its spread in popularity.

After the German occupation of Yugoslavia, a radio station was established in Belgrade and beamed news, and all the propaganda fit to air, to the Africa Corps. Lieutenant Karl-Heinz Reintgen, the director of Radio Belgrade had a friend in the Africa Corps who had liked the tune. He aired Lale Anderson's version for the first time on 18. August 1941. General Feldmarschall Rommel liked the song and asked Radio Belgrade to incorporate the song into their broadcasts, which they did. The song soon became the signature tune of the broadcast and was played at 9:55 pm, just before sign-off.

After the song was broadcast there was no holding it back. The Allies listened to it and Lili Marleen became the favourite tune of soldiers on both sides, regardless of language.

The immense popularity of the German version spawned a hurried English version, supposedly when a British song publisher named J.J. Phillips reprimanded a group of British soldiers for singing the verses - in German. One irate soldier shouted back : "why don't you write us some English words?". Phillips and a British songwriter Tommie Connor soon had an English version in 1944. Anne Sheldon's English hit record started the song's popularity with the Allied countries. Vera Lynn sang it over the BBC to the Allied troops. The British Eighth Army adopted the song.

It was sung in military hospitals and blasted over huge speakers, along with propaganda nuggets, across the frontlines, in both directions.

Marlene Dietrich featured The Girl under the Lantern in public appearances, on radio and "three long years in North-Africa, Sicily, Italy, in Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, in England," as she later recalled.

An RCA US recording, by an anonymous chorus in June, made it to No. 13 in 1944. It hit the US charts again in 1968, the German charts again in 1981 and the Japanese charts in 1986.

The song is said to have been translated into more than 48 languages, including French, Russian and Italian and Hebrew. Tito in Yuogoslavia greatly enjoyed the song.

Lili Marlene is easily the most popular war song ever. Its theme of dreaming for one's lover is universal. Why is the song so popular? The last word goes to Lale Anderson : "Can the wind explain why it became a storm?"

To hear the melody, click on link three, please.

Answer 2

I suggestion I acquired your whole poems in my field, however this one "crawled via me", come what may. It caught to a a laugh-bone after which sank in at a deeper stage, closing with me after I completed studying. I'm exceptionally completely satisfied you spared the spider (considered one of God's so much misunderstood creations). The thesaurus taught me a few new phrases and of that, I'm constantly appreciative. Long in the past whilst I had entry to Gio's glossaries, I constantly discovered whatever new. One factor I will state approximately Gio. I've by no means heard him utter a phrase that held no conviction. He wears his emotions on his sleeve for all to look. Often instances our statements are misinterpreted, exceptionally whilst a language isn't ones local tongue. Feelings typically translate in a convoluted means that may be misunderstood. Yes, as soon as water has handed beneath a bridge, it is long past. But one ought to by no means unfastened sight of the water to return. Just stand rapid at the bridge. Never wreck or burn it. Your poem Bri made me think well at present. Simple because the discipline of this poem, I have felt metaphorical that means right here, and its left me feeling confident. It's the small matters of existence we so typically forget and preserve the finest knowledge for us, If we can simply give up and permit the bigger nature of our souls furnish us consul.

Answer 3

It was a song by Marlene Deitrich,
Called lily marlene