LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,138)
  • Text Authors (19,558)
  • 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

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)
Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

To my sister
Language: English 
Our translations:  GER
It is the first mild day of March:
Each minute sweeter than before
The redbreast sings from the tall larch
That stands beside our door.

There is a blessing in the air,
Which seems a sense of joy to yield
To the bare trees, and mountains bare,
And grass in the green field.

My sister! ('tis a wish of mine)
Now that our morning meal is done,
Make haste, your morning task resign;
Come forth and feel the sun.

Edward will come with you;--and, pray,
Put on with speed your woodland dress;
And bring no book: for this one day
We'll give to idleness.

No joyless forms shall regulate
Our living calendar:
We from to-day, my Friend, will date
The opening of the year.

Love, now a universal birth,
From heart to heart is stealing,
From earth to man, from man to earth:
--It is the hour of feeling.

One moment now may give us more
Than years of toiling reason:
Our minds shall drink at every pore
The spirit of the season.

Some silent laws our hearts will make,
Which they shall long obey:
We for the year to come may take
Our temper from to-day.

And from the blessed power that rolls
About, below, above,
We'll frame the measure of our souls:
They shall be tuned to love.

Then come, my Sister! come, I pray,
With speed put on your woodland dress;
And bring no book: for this one day
We'll give to idleness.

Text Authorship:

  • by William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850), "To my sister", written 1798 [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 Anton Brejestovsky , "To my sister" [
     text not verified 
    ]
  • by Bruce A. Randall , "To my sister" [
     text not verified 
    ]

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

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , title 1: "Meiner Schwester", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: Bertram Kottmann

This text was added to the website: 2007-04-29
Line count: 40
Word count: 246

Meiner Schwester
Language: German (Deutsch)  after the English 
Der erste milde Märztag bringt
minütlich Süßeres hervor.
Rotkehlchen in der Lärche singt
hoch neben unserm Tor.

Die Luft erfüllt ein Segensweh'n:
Es schenkt ein Glücksgefühl der Welt,
dem kahlen Wald, den fahlen Höh'n
und grünes Gras auf's Feld.

Auf... Schwester! (Und das wünsch ich mir)
nach unserm morgendlichen Mahl:
Lass rasch die Arbeit ruh'n, dass wir
verspür'n der Sonne Strahl.

Klein Edward dich begleiten mag,
kleid dich zum Wandern ein;
kein Buch nimm mit, denn diesen Tag
woll'n wir der Muße weih'n.

Weg mit dem grauen Winterkleid,
denn heut' beginnt fürwahr,
in unserm Almanach die Zeit,
wenn Freude tritt ins Jahr.

Uns Menschen ward im Winter gar
die Liebe fast erfroren.
Aus Frühlingserde wahrnehmbar
wird sie uns neu geboren.

Ein Augenblick gibt uns jetzt mehr...
als jahrelang studieren.
Der Leib, die Seel' woll'n mit Begehr
den Geist des Lenzes spüren.

Die Regel haben wir im Sinn
und halten sie auch ein:
der heut'ge Tag soll fürderhin
die Richtschnur für uns sein.

Auf dass die segensreiche Kraft,
die um und in uns webt,
auch uns're Herzen neu erschafft,
in Liebe sie erhebt.

Drum Schwester komm und sei nicht zag,
kleid' dich zum Wandern ein;
kein Buch nimm mit, denn diesen Tag
woll'n wir der Muße weih'n.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2007 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in English by William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850), "To my sister", written 1798
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2007-04-29
Line count: 40
Word count: 206

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