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Dreizehn Weisen eine Amsel zu betrachten

Translations © by Bertram Kottmann

Song Cycle by Louise Juliette Talma (1906 - 1996)

View original-language texts alone: 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

1.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 1, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
1.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Mitten unter zwanzig schneebedeckten Bergen
rührte sich allein
der Amsel Auge.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 1, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 3
Word count: 11

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
2.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
I was of three minds.
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 2, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
2.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Ich war dreier Meinungen.
Wie ein Baum,
in dem drei Amseln sind.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 2, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 3
Word count: 12

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
3.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 3, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
3.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Die Amsel wirbelte umher im Herbsteswind.
Dies war ein kleiner Teil der Pantomime.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 3, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 2
Word count: 13

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
4.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 4, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
4.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Ein Mann und eine Frau 
sind eins.
Ein Mann und eine Frau und eine Amsel
sind eins.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 4, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 4
Word count: 17

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
5.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 5, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
5.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Ich weiß nicht, was mir lieber ist,
Schönheit der Modulationen
oder die der Andeutungen,
der Gesang der Amsel
oder das Danach.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 5, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 5
Word count: 21

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
6.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 6, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
6.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Eiszapfen versahen das längliche Fenster gänzlich
mit barbarischem Glas.
Der Schatten der Amsel
querte es, hin und her.
Die Stimmung,
im Schatten nachvollzogen,
unentzifferbar.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 6, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 7
Word count: 24

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
7.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 7, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
7.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Ach schmächt’ge Männer aus Haddam,
warum stellt ihr euch gold’ne Vögel vor?
Seht ihr nicht, wie die Amsel
um die Füße der Frauen hüpft,
die bei euch sind?

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 7, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 5
Word count: 28

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
8.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 8, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
8.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Ich kenne vornehme Akzente
und klare Rhythmen, denen man sich nicht entziehen kann;
doch weiß ich auch,
dass die Amsel eingebunden ist
in das, was ich weiß.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 8, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 5
Word count: 27

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
9.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
When the blackbird flew out of sight
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 9, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
9.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Als die Amsel wegflog,
rührte sie am Rande
eines der vielen Kreise.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 9, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 3
Word count: 12

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
10.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in the green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 10, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
10.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Beim Anblick der Amseln,
die im grünen Lichte fliegen,
würden selbst die Kupplerinnen des Wohlklangs
schneidend kreischen.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 10, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 4
Word count: 17

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
11.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For Blackbirds.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 11, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
11.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Er fuhr durch Connecticut
in einer gläsernen Kutsche.
Einmal durchzuckte ihn ein Schreck
als er den Schatten seiner Droschke
für Amseln hielt.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 11, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 5
Word count: 22

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
12.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
The river is moving.
The blackbirds must be flying.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 12, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
12.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Der Fluss fließt dahin.
Die Amseln fliegen wohl.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 12, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 2
Word count: 8

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
13.   [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbirds sat
In the cedar-limbs.

Text Authorship:

  • by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 13, first published 1917

See other settings of this text.

by Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)
13.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Den ganzen Nachmittag war es am Dämmern.
Es schneite
und es schneite fort und fort.
Die Amseln saßen
im Geäst der Zedern.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955), appears in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, no. 13, first published 1917
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2015-06-07
Line count: 5
Word count: 22

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

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