Longing for the Homeland | Does not the weary heart still

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by Friedrich von Hardenberg (1772 - 1801), as Novalis

Translation © by Amy Pfrimmer

Bricht das matte Herz noch immer

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

Bricht das matte Herz noch immer
unter fremden Himmel nicht?
Kommt der Hoffnung bleicher Schimmer
immer noch mir zu Gesicht?
  Darf ich wol noch Rückkehr wähnen?
stromweis stürzen meine Tränen,
bis mein Herz im Kummer bricht.

Fern sind jene Jugendträume,
abwärts ligt das Vaterland,
Längst gefällt sind jene Bäume
und das alte Schloß [verbrannt]¹;
  Fürchterlich wie Meereswogen 
kam ein rauhes Heer gezogen,
und das Paradies verschwand.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• L. Reichardt

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Confirmed with Trösteinsamkeit in Liedern, gesammelt von Philipp Wackernagel, dritte vermehrte Auflage, Frankfurt a. M. u. Erlangen, Verlag von Heyder & Zimmer, 1858, page 53.

Note: modernized spelling would change "wol" to "wohl", "ligt" to "liegt"
¹ Reichardt: "zerbrannt"

Text Authorship:

by Friedrich von Hardenberg (1772 - 1801), as Novalis, no title, appears in Heinrich von Ofterdingen [fragment] [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 Luise Reichardt (1779 - 1826), "Sehnsucht nach dem Vaterlande" [sung text checked 1 time]

Set in a modified version by August Leopold Crelle, Johann Christoph Kienlen.

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

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 67

Longing for the Homeland

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

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Does not the weary heart still 
break under foreign skies? 
Is a pale glimmer of hope 
still visible to me? 
Could I still think of returning? 
Streams of my tears 
tumble down until my heart breaks in sorrow. 
Those youthful dreams are distant; 
down there lies the fatherland; 
Long since have the trees 
been felled 
and the old castle burnt;
Terrifying like ocean waves 
a rough army came, 
and paradise disappeared.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2019 by Amy Pfrimmer, (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.
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Based on:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Friedrich von Hardenberg (1772 - 1801), as Novalis, no title, appears in Heinrich von Ofterdingen [fragment]
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2019-07-05
Line count: 15
Word count: 71