LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,109)
  • Text Authors (19,482)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
Translation © by Malcolm Wren

Bundeslied
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  ENG
Den künftgen Tag und Stunden
Nicht heut dem Tag allein
Soll dieses Lied, verbunden
Von uns, gesungen seyn.
Euch bracht ein Gott zusammen
Der uns zusammen bracht.
Von schnellen ewgen Flammen
Seyd glücklich durchgefacht!

Ihr seyd nun Eins ihr Beyde,
Und wir mit euch sind eins.
Auf, trinkt der Dauer Freude
Ein Glas des ächten Weins!
Auf, in der holden Stunde
Stoßt an! und küsset treu
Bey diesem neuen Bunde
Die Alten wieder neu.

Nicht lang in unserm Kreise
Bist nicht mehr neu darinn;
Kennst schon die freye Weise
Und unsern treuen Sinn.
So bleib zu allen Zeiten
Herz Herzen zugekehrt;
Durch keine Kleinigkeiten
Werd' unser Bund gestört!

Uns hat ein Gott gesegnet
Ringsum mit freyem Blick,
Und, wie umher die Gegend,
So frisch sey unser Glück;
Durch Grillen nicht gedränget
Verknickt sich keine Lust:
Durch Zieren nicht geenget
Schlägt freyer unsre Brust.

Mit jedem Schritt wird weiter
Die rasche Lebensbahn,
Und heiter immer heiter
Steigt unser Blick hinan;
Und bleiben lange lange
Fort ewig so gesellt.
Ach! daß von Einer Wange
Hier eine Thräne fällt!

Doch ihr sollt nichts verlieren
Die ihr verbunden bleibt,
Wenn einen einst von Vieren
Das Schicksal von euch treibt;
Ists doch als wenn er bliebe!
Euch ferne sucht sein Blick;
Erinnerung der Liebe
Ist wie die Liebe, Glück.

Confirmed with Christoph Martin Wieland's Der Teutsche Merkur vom Jahr 1776. Ihro Römisch-Kayserlichen Majestät zugeeignet. Mit Königl. Preuß. und Churfürstl. Brandenburg. gnäd. Privilegio. Erstes Vierteljahr. Weimar, pages 123-124.

Note: this is the first version of Bundeslied.


Text Authorship:

  • by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), "Bundeslied", subtitle: "einem inngen Paar gesungen von Vieren", written 1775, first published 1776 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

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

  • by Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752 - 1814), "Bundeslied", published 1781. [ sung text verified 1 time]

Set in a modified version by Wilhelm Baumgartner, Ludwig van Beethoven, August Bergt, Hans Georg Nägeli, Gustav Reichardt, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, Adolf Reichel, C. F. E. Richter, Wilhelm Riem, Franz Peter Schubert, Wilhelmine Schwertzell, Otto Uhlmann.

    • Go to the text. [ view differences ] CAT DUT ENG FRE

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (Malcolm Wren) , "Union song", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Peter Rastl [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2007-10-03
Line count: 48
Word count: 214

Union song
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
On days and at hours in the future,
Not only on this present day,
Should this song that connects us 
Be sung out - by us.
A god brought you together,
The one that brought us together.
Let quick, eternal flames
Inspire you with happiness!

Now you are one, the two of you,
And we are one with you.
Up, drink to the joy that lasts
In a glass of genuine wine!
Up, in the beauteous hour
Clink glasses and kiss devotedly,
With this new alliance
Let the old ones be made new again.

You will not be in our circle long
Before you are no longer new within it,
You already know the free manners
And our devoted mindset.
So through all time remain
Turned to each other, heart to heart;
Through no pettiness
Will our union be destroyed.

A god has blessed us
All around with an open perception,
And like the area around
May our happiness be just as fresh.
We are not pressurised by silly ideas
Or oppressed by any desire;
We are not restricted by any fussiness,
Our breast beats more freely.

With every step it becomes wider,
The swift track of life,
And more and more cheerfully
Our eyes climb upwards.
And may we remain for a long, long time,
For ever onwards joined like this.
Oh, so that from a single cheek
A tear will drop here!

But you shall lose nothing
That remains bound to you,
If even a single one of the four
Is driven away from you by fate;
It would just be as if he remained:
He will still look for you from afar;
A memory of love
Is like the happiness of love.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2017 by Malcolm Wren, (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:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), "Bundeslied", subtitle: "einem inngen Paar gesungen von Vieren", written 1775, first published 1776
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2017-10-02
Line count: 48
Word count: 284

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris