Über eine Wiege 
schaukelt ein blauer Schmetterling.
Zwei Händchen langen ihm nach - vergebens.

Über eine Wiege 
schaukelt ein blauer Schmetterling.
Kein Patschen rühret sich, 
das Kind ist tot.
Der Sommervogel ruht sich 
auf den geschlossenen Händchen aus.

Excerpted and adapted from the much longer poem "Schmetterlinge", from the fourth stanza.

The text shown is a variant of another text. [ View differences ]
It is based on

• a text in German (Deutsch) by Detlev von Liliencron (1844 - 1909), "Schmetterlinge"
  • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Alexander Zemlinsky (1871 - 1942), "Über eine Wiege", 1904, published 1910. [
   text verified 1 time
  ]
• by Wim Zwaag (b. 1960), "Über eine Wiege", 2007 [voice and piano], from 3 Songs on poems by Detlev von Liliencron for Voice and Piano, no. 2. [
   text not verified 
  ]

Researcher for this page: Peter Donderwinkel

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 9
Word count: 37