LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,109)
  • Text Authors (19,485)
  • 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

by Hans Bethge (1876 - 1946)
Translation Singable translation possibly by Mabelle Shapleigh (flourished 1898-1938)

An einem Abend, da die Blumen dufteten
Language: German (Deutsch)  after the Chinese (中文) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE
An einem Abend, da die Blumen dufteten
Und alle Blätter an den Bäumen, trug der Wind mir
Das Lied einer entfernten Flöte zu. Da schnitt
Ich einen Weidenzweig vom Strauche, und
Mein Lied flog, Antwort gebend, durch die blühende Nacht.

Seit jenem Abend hören, wenn die Erde schläft,
Die Vögel ein Gespräch in ihrer Sprache.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Musikwissenschaft zwischen Kunst, Ästhetik und Experiment: Festschrift Helga de la Motte-Haber zum 60. Geburtstag, Reinhard Kopiez, herausgegeber, Königshausen & Neumann, 1998, page 267.


Text Authorship:

  • by Hans Bethge (1876 - 1946), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", appears in Die chinesische Flöte [an adaptation] [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "春夜洛城闻笛"
    • 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 Hans Altmann (1904 - 1961), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", op. 24 no. 1, published c1963 [ voice and piano ], from 7 Lieder aus Die chinesische Flöte, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Gottfried von Einem (1918 - 1996), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", op. 8 no. 1 [ medium voice and piano ], from Fünf Lieder aus dem Chinesischen, no. 1, Boosey & Hawks / Bote & Bock [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Maria Herz (1878 - 1950), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte" [ voice and piano ], from Lieder aus der chinesischen Flöte, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Artur Immisch (1902 - 1949), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", 1924 [ voice and piano ], from Sieben Lieder aus Die Chinesische Flöte von Hans Bethge, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Sigurd von Koch (1879 - 1919), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", 1916 [ voice and piano ], from Die geheimnisvolle Flöte, no. 5, Stockholm: Elkan & Schildknecht, Emil Carclius [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Leonard Pieter Joseph Michielsen (1872 - 1944), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", from Sechs Gesänge chinesischer Lyrik, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Krzysztof Penderecki (1933 - 2020), "Die geheimnisvolle flöte", 2007-2018 [ baritone and orchestra ], from symphony Chinesische Lieder, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Julius Röntgen (1855 - 1932), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", op. 66 no. 8 (1916), published 1917 [ voice and piano ], from Chinesische Lieder, no. 8, Copenhagen: Wilhelm Hansen [sung text not yet checked]
  • by James Martin Simon (1880 - 1944), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", op. 10 no. 1, from Drei Lieder aus der Chinesischen Flöte, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by (Johan Gustaf) Emil Sjögren (1853 - 1918), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", op. 54 (Wenn nur ein Traum och Die geheimnisvolle Flöte) no. 2 (1911), published 1911 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Ernst Toch (1887 - 1964), "An einem Abend, da die Blumen dufteten", op. 29 no. 2, published 1921, first performed 1924 [ soprano and orchestra ], from Die chinesische Flöte, no. 2, Mainz : Schott [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Rudolf Wagner-Régeny (1903 - 1969), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", 1921, from Lieder der Frühe, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Anton von Webern (1883 - 1945), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", op. 12 (Vier Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier) no. 2 (1917) [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Egon Joseph Wellesz (1885 - 1974), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", op. 15 no. 1 (1913), first performed 1966 [ voice and piano ], from Lieder aus der Fremde (nach dem Chinesischen von Hans Bethge), no. 1, Wien: Doblinger [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Georg Wolfsohn (1881 - 1955), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", published 1922 [ voice and piano ], from Lieder aus der Chinesischen Flöte des Hans Bethge, no. 2, Berlin, Ries & Erler [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in Dutch (Nederlands), a translation by Jules Bernard Schürmann (1873 - 1927) , from Chineesche verzen, first published 1916 ; composed by Marie Cornélie Cathérine Reynvaan.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in English, a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Samuel Hans Adler.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in English, a translation by Shigeyoshi Obata (1888 - 1971) , "On hearing the flute at Lo-Cheng one spring night", appears in Li Po, the Chinese poet, done into English verse ; composed by Phyllis Campbell.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in Finnish (Suomi), a translation by Eino Tikkanen ; composed by Sulho Veikko Juhani Ranta.
    • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
  • Also set in French (Français), a translation by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955) , "Les deux flûtes" [an adaptation] ; composed by René Bernier, Therèse Brenet, Marius-François Gaillard, Pierre Paubon, Manuel M. Ponce, Rosalie Marie Wertheim.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in French (Français), a translation by Judith Gautier (1845 - 1917) , "La flûte mystérieuse", appears in Le livre de jade, 1867 edition, in 7. Les poëtes, no. 4, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1867 ; composed by Gabriel-André Fabre.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Alfred Henschke (1890 - 1928) ; composed by Emil Anner, Helmut Barbe, Kurt Brüggemann, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, Wilhelm Rettich, Helmut Riethmüller.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel (1863 - 1920) , "Die ferne Laute" ; composed by Josef Schelb.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Max Fleischer (1880 - 1941) , "Geheimnisvolles Zwiegespräch zweier Flöten", appears in Der Porzellanpavillon: Nachdichtungen Chinesischer Lyrik von Max Fleisher, first published 1927 ; composed by Philipp Schoeller.
    • Go to the text.
  • Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Max Geilinger (1884 - 1948) , "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte" ; composed by Benno Ammann.
    • Go to the text.

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

  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "The mysterious flute", copyright ©
  • ENG English [singable] (Mabelle Shapleigh) , "The Mysterious Flute"
  • FRE French (Français) [singable] (Michel Dimitri Calvocoressi) , "La Flûte mystérieuse"
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "La flûte mystérieuse", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2003-12-09
Line count: 7
Word count: 55

The Mysterious Flute
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
Upon an ev'ning when the flow'rs their perfume shed
and all the leaves upon the branches, came the song of a flute
out of the distance borne to me.  A branch I quickly
severed from the willow and my song replied
in answer through the silence of the night.
And since that ev'ning list'ning, when the world's at rest,
The birds read our hearts, we speak their language.

From the Sjögren edition.

Text Authorship:

  • Singable translation possibly by Mabelle Shapleigh (flourished 1898-1938), "The Mysterious Flute" [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Hans Bethge (1876 - 1946), "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", appears in Die chinesische Flöte [an adaptation]
    • Go to the text page.

Based on:

  • a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "春夜洛城闻笛"
    • 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):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2008-02-11
Line count: 7
Word count: 68

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