LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,026)
  • Text Authors (19,309)
  • 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 (1,112)
  • 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.

Die Dämm’rung stand

Translations © by Bertram Kottmann

Song Cycle by Leon Kirchner (b. 1919)

View original-language texts alone: The Twilight Stood

1. 1612
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
The Auctioneer of Parting
His "Going, going, gone"
Shouts even from the Crucifix,
And brings his Hammer down --
He only sells the Wilderness,
The prices of Despair
Range from a single human Heart
To Two -- not any more --

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title

Go to the general single-text view

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
1.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Versteigerung des Abschieds:
„Zum Ersten, Zweiten, Dritten“
schallt es sogar vom Kreuz,
darauf der Hammer fällt -
Versteigert wird nur Lebenskampf,
der Preis für Seelenschmerz
liegt zwischen einem Menschenherz
und zwei - und keinem mehr.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2017 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2017-06-10
Line count: 8
Word count: 33

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
2. 1062
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
He scanned it -- staggered --
Dropped the Loop
To Past or Period --
Caught helpless at a sense as if
His Mind were going blind --

Groped up, to see if God was there --
Groped backward at Himself
Caressed a Trigger absently
And wandered out of Life.

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Go to the general single-text view

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
2.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Er prüfte - ratlos -
übergab
dem Einst, dem Jetzt die Schlinge,
griff hilflos nach ’nem Sinn, als ob 
die Seele ihm erblinde.

Sucht’ in der Höh’, ob Gott da sei,
suchte sein irdisch’ Selbst
kam abwesend ’nem Abzug nah
und trat dann aus der Welt.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2016 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2016-02-15
Line count: 9
Word count: 44

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
3. 1104
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
The Crickets sang
And set the Sun
And Workmen finished one by one
Their Seam the Day upon.

The low Grass loaded with the Dew
The Twilight stood, as Strangers do
With Hat in Hand, polite and new
To stay as if, or go.

A Vastness, as a Neighbor, came,
A Wisdom, without Face, or Name,
A Peace, as Hemispheres at Home
And so the Night became.

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1896

See other settings of this text.

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
3.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Die Grille sang,
Sonn’untergang,
Wer ’s Tagwerk wohl verrichtet hat,
schloss an ihm Saum und Naht.

Am kurzen Gras hing schwer der Tau,
die Dämm’rung stand, wie Fremde stehn:
Hut in der Hand, abwartend noch -
ob Bleiben oder Gehn.

Und Weite als ein Nachbar kam,
und Weisheit ohn’ Gesicht und Nam’,
und Fried’ als heimgekehrte Welt:
So hat die Nacht sich eingestellt.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2016 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, first published 1896
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2016-02-15
Line count: 12
Word count: 63

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
4. 435
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
'Tis the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane,
Demur, - you're straightaway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890

See other settings of this text.

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
4.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
„Verrücktheit“ - göttlichste Vernunft -
dem, der es wahrlich sieht,
„Vernunft“, schierste Verrücktheit -
doch was die Mehrheit meint,
das gilt, wie stets, auch hier -
wer zustimmt, ist normal,
und wer sich sträubt, gilt als Gefahr,
die man in Ketten legt.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2017 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2017-06-10
Line count: 8
Word count: 38

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
5. 994
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
Partake as doth the Bee,
Abstemiously.
The Rose is an Estate --
In Sicily.

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title

Go to the general single-text view

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
5.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Mach es wie die Bienen,
bescheide dich.
Die Rose ist ein Gutshof
auf Sizilien.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2017 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2017-06-10
Line count: 4
Word count: 14

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
6. 1683
 (Sung text)
Language: English 
There came a Wind like a Bugle —
It quivered through the Grass
And a Green Chill upon the Heat
So ominous did pass
We barred the Windows and the Doors
As from an Emerald Ghost —
The Doom's electric Moccasin
That very instant passed —
On a strange Mob of panting Trees
And Fences fled away
And Rivers where the Houses ran
Those looked that lived — that Day —
The Bell within the steeple wild
The flying tidings told —
How much can come
And much can go,
And yet abide the World!

Text Authorship:

  • by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title

See other settings of this text.

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
6.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Ein Wind kam auf wie Hornsignal,
er rüttelte die Flur,
durch Hitze zog ein frostig Grün
unheilvoll seine Spur.
Wir sperrten Tür und Fenster zu
als käm’ ein grüner Geist-
des Unheils blitzgelad’ner Schuh
zog eben jetzt vorbei.
Auf Bäume, ächzend und bizarr,
auf Zäune, fortgeweht,
auf Flüsse, wo einst Häuser war’n
konnte, wer lebte, sehn.
Die Sturmglocke hat wild gegellt,
kündigt von Ort zu Ort -
was auch passiert auf dieser Welt,
sie dauert dennoch fort!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2017 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2017-06-10
Line count: 16
Word count: 76

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
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