Frage
Language: German (Deutsch)
Available translation(s): ENG
Wieviel Wege bin ich schon gegangen?
Wieviel Welt ging in die Augen mir?
Ach den Läufer überläuft Verlangen!
Hergenahtem Schein entflog die Zier.
Leg ich Meil an Meile durch die Ferne,
Sag Minute, Stunde, Tag und Jahr...
Sandkorns Fall es tief wie in Zisterne,
Kindes Tritt im Ungeheuren war.
Und ein Blatt geworfen durch die Zeiten,
Zwischen toten, ungelebten hin,
Spür ich mich im windebangen Gleiten.
Doch was sagt mir, daß ich Flügel bin?
Confirmed with Hans Heinrich Ehrler, Gesicht und Antlitz: Neue Gedichte, Gotha: Leopold Klotz Verlag, 1928, page 5.
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (John Glenn Paton) , "Question", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: John Glenn Paton
[Guest Editor] , Sharon Krebs
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2016-06-08
Line count: 12
Word count: 74
Question
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch)
How many roads have I already traveled?
How much world have I already seen?
Ah, desire overwhelms the runner!
Grace fled from brightness come near.
If I heap up miles and miles of distance,
say minute, hour, day and year...
it is like a grain of sand falling into a well,
like a child’s step into enormity.
And like a leaf thrown through the ages,
among dead ones, among some that never lived,
I feel that I am gliding in wind and fear.
But what gives me the idea that I am wings?
Authorship:
- Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2016 by John Glenn Paton, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2016-06-08
Line count: 12
Word count: 93