Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?
Es ist der Vater mit ihrem Kind;
Sie hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm,
Sie faßt sie sicher, sie hält sie warm.

NNescio said:

Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?
Es ist der Vater mit ihrem Kind;
Sie hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm,
Sie faßt sie sicher, sie hält sie warm.

Es ist der Vater (male!) mit seinem Kind
Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm
Er fasst ihn sicher, er hält ihn warm.

(personal pronouns in German are a bitch!)

"Tei, Sohn, was birgst Du so bang dein Gesicht?"
"Siehst Präs'dent Du den Arzt-König nicht?"

sanitaeter said:

Es ist der Vater (male!) mit seinem Kind
Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm
Er fasst ihn sicher, er hält ihn warm.

(personal pronouns in German are a bitch!)

I thought if there's a female father and a female son, one switches most of the pronouns/adjectives to female except for those immediately preceding Vater and Knabe?

Or is it too weird and jarring?

NNescio said:

I thought if there's a female father and a female son, one switches most of the pronouns/adjectives to female except for those immediately preceding Vater and Knaben?

Or is it too weird and jarring?

I understand your reason. But it sounds really weird for me. Why not "Es ist die Mutter mit ihrem Kind" and "die Tochter"? Later in the ballad the genderswap would disturb the rythm: Mein Sohn, was birgst Du so bang Dein Gesicht? <> Meine Tochter, was ... , but not in this verse.

sanitaeter said:

I understand your reason. But it sounds really weird for me. Why not "Es ist die Mutter mit ihrem Kind" and "die Tochter"? Later in the ballad the genderswap would disturb the rythm: Mein Sohn, was birgst Du so bang Dein Gesicht? <> Meine Tochter, was ... , but not in this verse.

I see. Thanks for giving me your view as a native speaker. This sort of thing is never mentioned in textbooks (and is hard to glean from reading materials), so it's very helpful.

NNescio said:

I see. Thanks for giving me your view as a native speaker. This sort of thing is never mentioned in textbooks (and is hard to glean from reading materials), so it's very helpful.

The German language is full of gender specific words you don't have in English. There are the articles: der, die, das. English only has "the". Words for jobs are gender specific: der Arzt, die Ärztin (English: the doctor). This is making the actual discussion regarding political correct gendering even more complicated than in English. Just imagine a text using both genders in every noun. I somehow envy the English use of "they" to signifiy an undetermined gender.