u/Black_Gay_Man

I worked for a German media organization for 7 years, and the foreigners were doing virtually all of the work, and literally German over the age of 50 was either lazy, unqualified, or completely incompetent. Yet they had ALL of the leadership positions. One manager in a department I worked in had no degree at all. His father, who was the previous boss, had given him the job years earlier and no one batted an eyelash. The place was constantly being sued for ScheinSelbstständigkeit and discrimination, yet they had these insane requirements for new hires that most of the current employees would never have been able to fulfill.

I’m currently on a Zeitvertrag in the performing arts and it’s the same dynamic. The old fogies can hardly deliver the bare minimum, while the younger people are put through the ringer to even get a chance. The newer people do the majority of the heavy lifting. It’s almost like young people and foreigners are required to prop up the mediocre native Germans while not stepping on their egos too much, and it’s very tiresome and demoralizing. Has anyone else noticed this?

And for the obligatory contrarians, yes I speak German. I have a C1 certificate, a German passport, and I have a masters from a top school in the USA.

Bonjour à toutes et a tous!

I’m an opera singer and I’m learning this piece. I need to make sure I’m understanding everything correctly. I speak a bit of French, but antiquated poetry is always tricky for me. If someone has the time to parse through this text and my translations, I would be eternally grateful. I am also attaching a recording performance of the piece (the middle video is just an instrumental video) by an excellent French tenor, as well as a link to the text in case someone wants to read it straight through without my translations. Will post the translations in the comments.

Merci en avance!

https://www.lieder.net/lieder/assemble_texts.html?SongCycleId=258

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4_dvvxhZEY

https://youtu.be/5Ek0p2PoXUY?si=2kROvhyLg_kG3ohO

https://youtu.be/2K3RMkeJdFU?si=PNEgFjxRddgRrSQ5