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The original context is “Bang fleht ein liebkranker Mann.” (Viljaslied, Die lustige Witwe).

I once wrote a poem beginning,

Ich schaue dich so gerne an.
Du ließt mich immer so bang.

Bang is supposed to mean anxious, or afraid, or however a liebeskranker Mann feels.

Am I using bang correctly in this context?

In an earlier version of this question (since deleted), someone commented that my usage of bang was “Shakespearean,” and that few contemporary Germans would use it. Point taken, but the question means, “What would your German-speaking Shakespeare teacher (or grandparent) have said about the appropriateness of this usage?”

Is there anything obviously wrong with what I’m doing (that wouldn’t be allowed by “poetic license”)? In any event, what are examples of “correct” or better usage?

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Shakespearean für einen deutschen Ausdruck? Goethisch vielleicht.:) – user unknown Nov 5 at 2:03

3 Answers 3

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Du ließt mich immer so bang


Present tense: Du lässt mich etc.

Past tense: Du ließest mich etc.


Du lässt/ließest mich immer so bang zurück

Du lässt/ließest mich immer so sehr bangen



In contrast to other exiled writers who lock themselves up inside their mother tongue so as to protect their creativity, Brodsky delved headlong into the enticements of his second language (…) The results are sometimes words, or juxtapositions of words, that test the limits of poetic license. This is the vague criterion that has made some of us wrinkle our brows: when does the foreign poet, writing in English, trespass boundaries of legitimate linguistic inventiveness? For which lines, for which exact words, should Brodsky perhaps have heeded the (presumable) doubts of his co-translators or first Anglophone readers? In May 24, 1980, translated by the author, Brodsky seemingly recalls his open-heart surgery: “Twice have drowned, thrice let knives rake my nitty-gritty.” Note the proximity of the literary “thrice” and the slang “nitty-gritty.” Note the knives that “rake.” Note the way “nitty-gritty” has become, in Brodsky’s mind, a synonym of, say, “guts.” Of course, the poet is making a philosophical point: “nitty-gritty,” in the meaning the term takes on in the expression “getting down to the nitty-gritty,” posits the body—in general, matter—as the ultimate horizon or dead-end of existence. In any event, Brodsky’s mature poetry, whether written directly in English, or translated by himself from Russian originals, sometimes raises these stylistic and lexical questions. At times the questions become barriers, however slight or surmountable, to a full appreciation of a poem. Source


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Accepted because of the very helpful comments on tenses. Thank you. And here is a meta post (on another site) that may interest you, because it arose out of our earlier discussions.… – Tom Au May 27 '13 at 17:25

Bang can mean anxious, but clearly leaning towards scared, or afraid. “Mir wird angst und bange” ist a standing expression meaning I am scared.

Whether or not you used correctly bang in your poem is still yours to decide, but that’s the meaning of it anyways.

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After “Ich schaue dich so gerne an” the word bang doesn’t make sense to me. Bang means afraid more than anxious.

share|improve this answer liefert auf Platz 3 für anxious bang:… – user unknown Nov 5 at 2:06

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