Blissfully portending forest night | Blissfully portending forest night!

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by Gustav Kastropp (1844 - 1925)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Ahnungsselige Waldesnacht!

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

Ahnungsselige Waldesnacht!--
Leise lispeln die Blätter
Und das silberne Mondlicht
Zittert von Oben
Hernieder.

Dämmernd erscheint mir dein Bild
Und begeistert
Möcht' ich singen ein Lied,
Wie die Drossel es sang,
Die nun im Erlengebüsch
Verstummt ist.

Bist du doch selbst ein Gedicht,
So wunderbar lieblich,
Wie's kein begeisterter Dichtermund,
Wie's kein schmelzender Vogelgesang
Singen kann.

Nicht mit dem silbernen Mond,
Dem kalten, bleichen,
Nicht mit der sengenden Sonne
Kannst du verglichen werden,
Du Holde,

Doch wenn am Sommerabend
In feuchter Verklärung
Blinket der Abendstern,
Denk' ich an deine Augen,
O Ella!

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Gustav Kastropp, König Elf’s Lieder. Eine lyrische Rhapsodie, Zweite Auflage, Stuttgart: Verlag von Adolf Bonz & Comp., 1877, pages 30-31

Text Authorship:

by Gustav Kastropp (1844 - 1925), no title, appears in König Elfs Lieder, in 1. Erster Teil. Rosenzeit, no. 28, first published 1875 [author's text checked 1 time 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 Felix Paul Weingartner (1863 - 1942), "Ahnungsselige Waldesnacht", published 1890 [ voice and piano ], from Harold. Eine Folge von neun Gesängen aus Kastropp's lyrischer Rhapsodie "König Elf's Lieder" , no. 3, Mannheim, Heckel [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "Blissfully portending forest night", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2010-03-11
Line count: 26
Word count: 92

Blissfully portending forest night

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Blissfully portending forest night!--
The leaves whisper quietly
And the silvery moonlight
From above trembles
Downward.

Dimly your image appears to me
And, enraptured,
I would like to sing a song,
As it was sung by the thrush
That in the elderbush has now
Fallen silent.

For you yourself are a poem,
So wondrously lovely
As no enraptured poet,
As no melting bird song
Could sing it.

Not with the silvery moon,
The cold pale one,
Not with the singeing sun
Can you be compared,
You lovely one;

But when on a summer evening
In dewy transfiguration
The evening star twinkles,
Then I think of your eyes,
Oh Ella!

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2017 by Sharon Krebs, (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:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Gustav Kastropp (1844 - 1925), no title, appears in König Elfs Lieder, in 1. Erster Teil. Rosenzeit, no. 28, first published 1875
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2017-06-16
Line count: 26
Word count: 109