Ich denke oft ans [große]1 Meer
Und hab' es nie geschaut;
Und hab' ihm doch so lange schon
Mein kleines [Leid]2 vertraut.
Das macht: ich kenn es besser,
Als mancher Seemann wohl,
Wie man in seine Tiefe
Mit Andacht schauen soll.

Und fern mir, wie die Meeresflut,
Geht deines Herzens Schlag,
Den innerlich in stiller Nacht
Ich lauschend hören mag.
Es ist dein Herz ein Spiegel
Von Erdduft überhaucht,
Darein Gott oft beschaulich
Und tief sein Auge taucht.

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Confirmed with Jakob Baechtold, Gottfried Kellers Leben. Seine Briefe und Tagebücher, Erster Band: 1819-1850, Berlin: Verlag von Wilhelm Hertz, 1894, pages 443-444.

¹ Kleffel, Weingartner: "blaue" ; further changes may exist for the Weingartner setting, not shown above.
² Kleffel: "Lied"

Text Authorship:

• by Gottfried Keller (1819 - 1890), "An George Sand", written 1845 [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 Arno Kleffel (1840 - 1913), "Ich denke oft an's blaue Meer", published 1903 [ voice and piano ], in the collection Im Volkston: moderne Volkslieder komponiert für Die Woche, Druck und Verlag von August Scherl G.m.b.H. Berlin [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Felix Paul Weingartner (1863 - 1942), "Ich denke oft an's blaue Meer", op. 27 no. 2, published 1900 [ voice and piano ], from Drei Gedichte aus Gottfried Kellers Jugendzeit, no. 2, Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel  [sung text not yet checked]

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

• ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2021, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Sharon Krebs [Senior Associate Editor], Harry Joelson

This text was added to the website: 2012-02-22
Line count: 16
Word count: 80

I often think of the [vast]1 ocean
And have never seen it;
And yet for such a long time I have
Entrusted my small [sorrow]2 to it.
That is because I know it better
Than many a seaman,
How one should look into its depths
With reverence.

And far from me, like the waters of the sea,
The beating of your heart goes on,
To which in the quiet night I like
To listen inwardly.
Your heart is a mirror
Frosted with the scent of earth,
In which God often submerges
His gaze, contemplatively and deeply.