Das Leben vergeht wie ein Blitzstrahl, Dessen Glanz kaum so lange währt, daß man ihn sehen kann. Wenn die Erde und der Himmel ewig unbeweglich stehen, Wie rasch fliegt die wechselnde Zeit über das Anlitz der Menschen! O du, der du beim vollen Becher sitzest und nicht trinkst, O sage mir, auf wen wartest du noch?
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Confirmed with Hermann Hesse, Sämtliche Werke, herausgegeben von Volker Michels, Band 8 Die Erzählungen. 1911-1954, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2001, page 296.
Text Authorship:
- by Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962), no title, written 1919, appears in Klingsors letzter Sommer [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762) [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Konrad Seckinger (1935 - 2015), "Weinlied", published 1971 [ four-part men's chorus a cappella ], from Lieder der Zecher, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "Wine song", 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: 2009-06-13
Line count: 6
Word count: 56