Die Beiden
Language: German (Deutsch)
Eros:
O Bruder sag, warum bist Du gekommen,
Hast meine Früchte wieder fortgenommen,
Ich füll die Luft mit süßen Lebensdüften,
Du trägst verwest sie zu den Modergrüften?
Thanatos:
O Bruder sag, wir stehen hier im Raume,
Erfüll ihn einmal nur mit Deinem Traume,
Schütt aus in das Geleis der Schöpfungszeiten,
So weit Gesichte diese mögen weiten!
Eros:
O Bruder sag, es würde überfließen,
Daß alle Wände selig sich zerstießen!
. . . Indes . . . vielleicht auch blieben stehn die Wände,
Was täten dann wohl meine vollen Hände?
Thanatos:
O Bruder, schau in dieses Teiches Spiegel!
Trägt unsre Stirne nicht das Zwillingssiegel?
Wärst Du allein mit solchem Zauberwunder,
Dann säh nur mein Gesicht statt Deins hinunter.
Confirmed with Hans Heinrich Ehrler, Gesicht und Antlitz: Neue Gedichte, Gotha: Leopold Klotz Verlag, 1928, page 97.
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 two", copyright © 2017, (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: 2017-04-19
Line count: 20
Word count: 117
The two
Language: English after the German (Deutsch)
Eros:
O brother, say, why have you come?
You have taken my fruits away again.
I fill the air with life’s sweet scents;
must you carry it, rotting, to the dank crypts?
Thanatos:
O brother, say, we stand in the very place;
fill it this once with your dreams,
pour them out into the channel of creation’s eons,
as far as they can broaden it.
Eros:
O brother, say, it would overflow
so that all walls would burst with joy!
But... the walls might remain standing,
and then what would my full hands do?
Thanatos:
O brother, look into the mirror of this pool.
Do not our brows bear the sign of twins?
If you only had such magic power,
then only my face, not yours, would be looking down there.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2017 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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2017-04-19
Line count: 20
Word count: 131
