The darkest hours | Those are the hours that we cannot comprehend!

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by Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Dunkelste Stunden

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: CAT ENG

Das sind die Stunden, die wir nicht begreifen!
Sie beugen uns in Todestiefen nieder
Und löschen aus, was wir von Trost gewußt,
Sie reißen uns geheimgehaltene Lieder
Mit blutend wunden Wurzeln aus der Brust.

Und doch sind das die Stunden, deren Last
Uns Stille lehrt und innerlichste Rast
Und die zu Weisen uns und Dichtern reifen.

Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Confirmed with Hermann Hesse, Sämtliche Werke, herausgegeben von Volker Michels, Band 10 Die Gedichte, bearbeitet von Peter Huber, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2002, pages 118-119.

Text Authorship:

by Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962), "Dunkelste Stunden", written 1902 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Lache , "Dunkelste Stunden", 1953 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Christian Immo Schneider (b. 1935), "Dunkelste Stunden ", op. 24 no. 6 [ medium voice and piano ], from Acht vermischte Lieder für mittlere Singstimme und Klavier nach Gedichten von Hermann Hesse, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Frank Steiner , "Dunkelste Stunden" [ voice and piano ], from Der Blütenzweig - Fünf Gedichte von Hermann Hesse, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Les hores més fosques", copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "The darkest hours", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2009-05-21
Line count: 8
Word count: 56

The darkest hours

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Those are the hours that we cannot comprehend!
They bow us down into the depths of death
And extinguish that which we knew of comfort,
From our breast, with bleeding, sore roots, 
They wrest forth the songs that we kept secret.

And yet those are the hours whose burden
Teaches us quietness and innermost rest
And those which ripened us into wise ones and poets.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2018 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 Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962), "Dunkelste Stunden", written 1902
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2018-02-15
Line count: 8
Word count: 65