LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,139)
  • 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 Elisabeth Philippine Amalie, Freifrau von Hohenhausen (1789 - 1857)
Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Stanzas
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
The night-storm roars about Pindus' heights,
  The winds are deeply angry,
And rivers of rain flow down
  From the dark army of clouds.

No guide can be perceived any longer,
  The flash of lightning barely shows us
The rocky cliffs that hide the pathway,
  [Barely shows us] the foaming of the river of rain.

Now I see the roof of a hut,
  If the weak vestige of light
Does not deceive me, but woe! woe!
  It is only a Turkish grave.

A sound has now carved itself a path
  Through the howling. --
My lost compatriot is calling:
  Old England! through the night.

A shot rings out – another -- are there
  Brigands creeping about here? oh no!
This sign calls the inhabitants of the mountain
  To come to our aid.

Oh, even if this weak shot, too,
  Penetrated the roaring of the thunder,
Who would willingly go out
  In such a pouring rain?

These paths are unsafe as well,
  Whoever heard our calls
In the dark night along the rocky strand,
  Would easily think of robbery.

The clouds burst, everything around
  Harbours fearsome night!
Only one thought, blissfully gentle,
  Makes me happy even here.

Florentia! whither do you tarry while
  I walk through rocks and thorns;
And all the elements, fermenting,
  Pour down their wrath?

You are not upon the sea -- your ship
  Must long be in harbour already.
Oh! as long as the storms sleep for you,
  May the worst threaten me.

Yes, the sirocco came a-flying
  After the recompense of your kiss;
Quickly upon the white foaming wave
  Your proud ship sailed off.

You landed in Spain,
  Oh benevolent one, beautiful and good;
It would be too cruel if your ship
  Were still driven by surging waves upon the waters.

As I yet ever think of you 
  Even in storm, danger, and night,
As in the bright glitter of the festival
  Where loud rejoicing laughs;

Thus must you think of me in
  The white walls of Cadiz,
And must with mourning often gaze
  Seaward from out of its halls;

May Calypsa's [sic] island ever be
  Precious to you in your heart;
With others you may smile, jest --
  Your sighs must be for me.

And if the circle of your admirers try 
  To discover the reason for the veil of melancholy 
That, quietly gliding over your features,
  Dulls your eyes,

Then you shall smile, to evade
  The badinage of the fops;
Never to reveal of whom you think,
  Even if he also thinks of you eternally.

Pain and tears are for naught
  In hearts that are separated;
Yet my longing soars over land and sea
  To the heart that knows me.

Translation of the note below the title: "Written on 11 October 1809 during a stormy night, close to the mountain range formerly called Pindus, in Albania, when our guides had lost the road to Zitza."

Note to Stanza 15, line 1: The published poem contains a footnote identifying "Calypsa's island" as "Sicily."


Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2023 by Sharon Krebs, (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 Elisabeth Philippine Amalie, Freifrau von Hohenhausen (1789 - 1857), "Stanzen von Lord Byron"
    • Go to the text page.

Based on:

  • a text in English by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788 - 1824), "Stanzas", written 1809, appears in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a Romaunt: and other Poems, in Poems, first published 1812
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2011-07-06
Line count: 72
Word count: 441

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