Auf dem Bodensee
Language: German (Deutsch)
Schlage die Flut, rastloses Rad,
Wühlend zur Ferne bahne den Pfad!
Wenn auch der Sturm die Raaen zerkracht:
Trotz ihm, der Menschen und Stürme gemacht!
Brause hinein in die Nacht!
Am Himmel kein Stern, der freundlich grüßt,
Kein Wort in der Brust das Scheiden versüßt;
Nur der Leuchtturm kündet vom Strand
Nachtbegraben ein Vaterland,
Dem ich den Rücken gewandt.
Was du gehofft, was du geliebt --
Fühlst du, wie eins nach dem andern zerstiebt?
Liebe und Freundschaft ist lustig verpufft,
Oder verdunstet gemach in die Luft,
Oder ruht in der Gruft.
Halte dich fest!
Laß es verlassen sein, was du verläßt!
Wirbelnd rollens die Räder im Grund:
Fern von der Heimat wirst du gesund --
Fern von der Heimat -- gesund . . .
Confirmed with Ferdinand Avenarius, Wandern und Werden. Erste Gedichte, Zweite, neugestaltete Auflage, Florenz und Leipzig: Eugen Diederichs, 1898, page 65
Text 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 (Sharon Krebs) , "Upon Lake Constance", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust
[Administrator] , Sharon Krebs
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2012-12-12
Line count: 20
Word count: 121
Upon Lake Constance
Language: English after the German (Deutsch)
Beat the waters, restless wheel,
With your furrowing, cut your way into the distance!
Though the storm may break the boom:
Defy him, who made people and storms!
Rush out into the night!
Upon the heavens [there is] no star that sends a friendly greeting,
[There is] no word in the bosom that sweetens the parting,
From the shore only the lighthouse tells
Of a homeland buried in night,
[A homeland] upon which I have turned my back.
That for which you hoped, that which you loved --
Do you feel how one after another they are scattered?
Love and friendship have merrily fizzled out,
Or slowly evaporated into the air,
Or rest in the grave.
Hold on tightly!
Let that which you leave behind be left!
Churningly the wheels grind it into the ground:
Far from your homeland you shall recover --
Far from your homeland -- recovered . . .
Text Authorship:
- Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2017 by Sharon Krebs, (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: 2017-12-08
Line count: 20
Word count: 149
