The beautiful woman who wants | Do you still know me? We have become old

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by Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962)

Translation © by Malcolm Wren

La belle qui veut . . .

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: CAT ENG

Kennst du mich noch? Wir wurden alt
und fremd und anders, ich und du.
Wir wurden kühl, wir wurden kalt,
ich glaub' es geht dem Winter zu.

Wie ist das fern, wie ist das lang,
seit wir uns beide nimmer sah'n!
Das Lied, das ich dir damals sang,
klingt trüb in meinem Herzen an:

  La belle qui veut
  La belle qui n'ose
  Cueillir les roses
  Du jardin bleu . . .

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Text Authorship:

by Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962) [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 John Frandsen (b. 1956), "La belle qui veut . . .", 1989 [ voice and piano ], from Winternächte, no. 2, confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]

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

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "La bella que vol...", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Malcolm Wren) , "The beautiful woman who wants", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2024-12-23
Line count: 12
Word count: 71

The beautiful woman who wants

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Do you still know me? We have become old
and strangers and different, you and I.
We have cooled, we have become cold, 
I believe winter is approaching.

How far away, how long ago, it is
since the two of us saw each other!
The song that I used to sing to you then
is echoing sadly in my heart:

The beautiful woman who wants
The beautiful woman who does not dare
To cut the roses
Of the blue garden . . .

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2024 by Malcolm Wren, (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)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2024-12-23
Line count: 12
Word count: 83