Pourquoi ? | Ô de retour sur cet angoissant chemin

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by Anna (Nuhn) Ritter (1865 - 1921)

Translation © by Pierre Mathé

Warum?

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG FRE

O jenen bangen Weg zurück,
Da jeder Baum von ihm erzählte,
Da jedes Blatt und jeder Stein
Mit Fragen meine Seele quälte,
Da Alles sprach: Warum? Warum?

"Warum gehst du den Weg allein,
Mit ernster Stirn und blassen Wangen,
Den du am blauen Frühlingstag
So jubelnd einst zu Zwei'n gegangen?" --
-- Mein Herz schrie auf . . . mein Mund blieb stumm --

O du verzehrendes "Warum".

Confirmed with Anna Ritter, Gedichte, Neunte Auflage, Stuttgart und Berlin: J.G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, 1900, page 46.

Text Authorship:

by Anna (Nuhn) Ritter (1865 - 1921), "Warum?", appears in Gedichte, in 1. Das Ringlein sprang entzwei, no. 28 [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 Heinrich Kaspar Schmid (1874 - 1953), "Warum?", op. 17 (Fünf Gedichte) no. 2, published 1913 [ voice and piano ], München: Wunderhornverlag [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "Why?", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Pourquoi ?", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Senior Associate Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2011-09-03
Line count: 11
Word count: 65

Pourquoi ?

Language: French (Français) after the German (Deutsch)

Ô de retour sur cet angoissant chemin
Où chaque arbre parle de lui,
Où chaque feuille, chaque pierre
Tourmente mon âme de questions,
Où tout dis  « Pourquoi, pourquoi ? »

« Pourquoi parcours-tu ce chemin seule,
Le front grave et le joues blêmes,
Celui qu'aux jours bleus du printemps
Vous avez à deux parcourus si joyeux ? »
Mon cœur s'exclama … ma bouche resta muette.

Ô toi, dévorant « Pourquoi ? »

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to French (Français) copyright © 2018 by Pierre Mathé, (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 Anna (Nuhn) Ritter (1865 - 1921), "Warum?", appears in Gedichte, in 1. Das Ringlein sprang entzwei, no. 28
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2018-04-08
Line count: 11
Word count: 71