The sun | Day by day the yellow sun comes o’er the hill

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by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Die Sonne

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG ENG FRE

Täglich kommt die gelbe Sonne über den Hügel.
Schön ist der Wald, das dunkle Tier,
Der Mensch; Jäger oder Hirt.

Rötlich steigt im grünen Weiher der Fisch.
Unter dem runden Himmel
Fährt der Fischer leise im blauen Kahn.

Langsam reift die Traube, das Korn.
Wenn sich stille der Tag neigt,
Ist ein Gutes und Böses bereitet.

Wenn es Nacht wird,
Hebt der Wanderer leise die schweren Lider;
Sonne aus finsterer Schlucht bricht.

Text Authorship:

by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914), appears in Sebastian im Traum, in Siebengesang des Todes [author's text not yet checked 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 Wilhelm Killmayer (1927 - 2017), "Die Sonne", 1996, first performed 1996 [ tenor and piano ], from Trakl-Lieder II : Schweigen und Kindheit, no. 5, Mainz, Schott [sung text not yet checked]
by Anton von Webern (1883 - 1945), "Die Sonne", op. 14 (Sechs Lieder nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl (Six songs on poems of Georg Trakl)) no. 1 (1921) [ voice, clarinet, violin, and cello ]
Score: IMSLP [external link] [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Elisabeth Siekhaus) , "The sun", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Bertram Kottmann) , "The sun", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Le soleil", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Jeroen Scholten

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 72

The sun

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Day by day the yellow sun comes o’er the hill.
Full of beauty is the forest, the dark beast;
man - hunter or shepherd.

Reddishly the fish surface in the green mere.
Under the vault of heaven
the fisherman gently drifts on a blue boat.

Slowly the grape, the corn ripens.  
When the day has stilly declined,
a Good and an Evil is prepared.

When night falls,
the wanderer quietly lifts his heavy lids;
the sun breaks out of a gloomy gorge.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English 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 German (Deutsch) by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914), appears in Sebastian im Traum, in Siebengesang des Todes
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-06-24
Line count: 12
Word count: 81