Die alte Uhr
Language: German (Deutsch)
Ist der Gang der Uhr nicht ein ganz andrer
Als ich glaubte, und nicht mehr vertraut?
Hat um sie die Zeitenhand dem Wandrer
Diese Wände magisch umgebaut?
Ging ihr Schlag, seit ich ging, eigne Wege,
Abgetrennt von meines Herzens Schlag?
Blieb das Zauberwerk allein hier rege,
Machte für sich selber Nacht und Tag?
Sagt zu diesem sonderbaren Dinge
Nicht der Horcher immer: bitte gib!?
Als wie Füllung hört er sein Gesinge.
Doch auf einmal wird daraus ein Dieb.
Ich erschrecke an des Pendels Schwinge.
Ach es schenket uns, was es zerrieb.
Confirmed with Hans Heinrich Ehrler, Gesicht und Antlitz: Neue Gedichte, Gotha: Leopold Klotz Verlag, 1928, page 11.
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 (John Glenn Paton) , "The old clock", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: John Glenn Paton
[Guest Editor] , Sharon Krebs
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2016-05-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 91
The old clock
Language: English after the German (Deutsch)
Isn’t the clock’s pace quite a different one
from what I thought, and no longer familiar?
For the traveler, hasn’t the hour hand
magically rebuilt these walls?
Since I left, has its ticking gone its own way,
separately from the beating of my heart?
Was the magic machine working here all alone,
measuring night and day all for itself?
To this strange thing, isn’t the listener
always saying, “Please, give in!?”
He hears its sing-song like a background,
but suddenly it turns into a thief.
I recoil from the pendulum’s swinging,
Ah, it gives us what it has crushed.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2016 by John Glenn Paton, (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.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2016-05-23
Line count: 14
Word count: 99
