LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,133)
  • Text Authors (19,544)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Zachris Topelius (1818 - 1898)
Translation by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

Grevinnans konterfej
Language: Swedish (Svenska) 
Our translations:  FIN
Jag är den makt, som allt förmår,
jag är den evigt unga vår,
som genom tid och åldrar går,
föryngrar och förklarar.
Och till de gamla kommer jag,
jag andas på de vissna drag,
och nya rosor, nytt behag
jag än åt dem bevarar.
 
I kojan eller slottet född,
i vadmal klädd, på siden stödd,
med blommor eller puder strödd,
jag evigt är densamma.
Jag evigt kallar rosor opp,
ur de förgångna dagars lopp
och skapar nya vårars hopp
i höstens aftonflamma.
 
Och minnet är mitt glada namn,
och människohjärtat är mitt hamn.
Århundraden uti min famn
stå upp igen i blomma.
Och lycklig den, vars flydda dag
står skriven i mitt anletsdrag
med oförvissneligt behag,
när kvällarna blir skumma.

Note: see Anna Maria Lenngren's Porträtterna.


Text Authorship:

  • by Zachris Topelius (1818 - 1898), "Grevinnans konterfej" [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 Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957), "Grevinnans konterfej", JS 88 (1906). [reciter, orchestra] [ sung text verified 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist) , "The countess's portrait"
  • FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , "Kreivittären muotokuva", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist) , "Das Konterfei der Gräfin"


Researcher for this page: Erkki Pullinen

This text was added to the website: 2018-06-13
Line count: 24
Word count: 120

The countess's portrait
Language: English  after the Swedish (Svenska) 
I am the force capable of everything,
I am the eternal youthful Spring
which proceeds, rejuvenates and elucidates
through time and age.
And unto the old I cometh,
I exhale upon  the fading breath,
and new roses, new delights
I ever pass on them.
 
Born in hovel or castle,
clothed in frieze, or stood on silk,
strewn with flowers or with powder,
I remain for ever the same.
I eternally summon the roses up
out of the course of days gone by
and create the hopes of the coming spring
in autumn’s evening flame.
 
And memory is my joyful name,
and my haven is the heart of man.
The century is my bosom
once more bursts in bloom.
And joyful be the one whose fleeting day
is inscrib’d upon my countenance
with unwithering delight,
when the evenings begin to darken.

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, "The countess's portrait" [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in Swedish (Svenska) by Zachris Topelius (1818 - 1898), "Grevinnans konterfej"
    • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this page: Erkki Pullinen

This text was added to the website: 2018-06-13
Line count: 24
Word count: 140

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris