Eight early songs

Translations © by Michael P Rosewall

Song Cycle by Anton von Webern (1883 - 1945)

View original-language texts alone: Acht frühe Lieder

1. Tief von fern
 (Sung text)
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Aus des Abends weißen Wogen
taucht ein Stern;
tief von fern
kommt der junge Mond gezogen.

Tief von fern,
aus des Morgens grauen Wogen,
langt der große blasse Bogen
nach dem Stern.

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by Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel (1863 - 1920)
1. Downward from afar
Language: English 
Out of the white billows of evening
A star descends;
Silently, from afar,
The pale moon emerges.

Afar, oh afar,
In the gray billows of morning,
Its pale, silent crescent remains
After the star.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2015 by Michael P Rosewall, (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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This text was added to the website: 2015-08-24
Line count: 8
Word count: 34

Translation © by Michael P Rosewall
2. Aufblick
 (Sung text)
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Über unsre Liebe hängt
eine tiefe Trauerweide.
Nacht und Schatten um uns beide;
unsre Stirnen sind gesenkt.

Wortlos sitzen wir im Dunkeln;
einstmals rauschte hier ein Strom,
einstmalssahn wir Sterne funkeln.

Ist denn Alles tot und trübe?
Horch: ein ferner Mund! vom Dom!

Glockenchöre... Nacht ... und Liebe...

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by Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel (1863 - 1920)
2. Prospect from above
Language: English 
Above our love 
A weeping willow bends deeply. 
Night and shadows surround us both;
Our brows lowered.

Wordlessly we sit in the darkness.
Once a stream gushed here,
Once we saw the flicker of stars. 

Is then everything dead and dismal?
Hark: -- a distant voice -- from the cathedral:

Choirs of bells … night … and love …

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2015 by Michael P Rosewall, (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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This text was added to the website: 2015-08-24
Line count: 10
Word count: 57

Translation © by Michael P Rosewall
3. Blumengruß
 (Sung text)
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Der Strauß, den ich gepflücket,
Grüße dich viel tausendmal!
Ich habe mich oft gebücket,
Ach, wohl eintausendmal,
Und ihn ans Herz gedrücket
Viel hunderttausendmal!

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by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
3. Floral greeting
Language: English 
The bouquet that I gathered,
Greets you a thousand times over!
I have often stooped thus,
Ah, indeed a thousand times,
And clasped it to my heart,
A hundred thousand times!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2015 by Michael P Rosewall, (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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This text was added to the website: 2015-08-24
Line count: 6
Word count: 31

Translation © by Michael P Rosewall
4. Bild der Liebe
 (Sung text)
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Vom Wald umgeben
Ein Blütenbaum -
So lacht ins Leben
Der Liebe Traum,
Ihm nah verbunden
Und fern zugleich,
Bis er entschwunden
Dem Zauberreich.

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by Friedrich Hermann Frey (1839 - 1911), as Martin Greif
4. Portrait of Love
Language: English 
Surrounded by the forest,
A flowering tree –
Thus, into life laughs
The dream of love,
Bound closely to it
And, at the same time, distant,
Until it dissipates
In the realm of magic.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2022 by Michael P Rosewall, (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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This text was added to the website: 2022-10-05
Line count: 8
Word count: 34

Translation © by Michael P Rosewall
5. Sommerabend
 (Sung text)
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Du Sommerabend! Heilig, goldnes Licht!
In sanftem Glühen steht die Flur entzündet.
Kein Laut, der dieses Friedens Lauschen bricht,
in ein Gefühl ist alles hingemündet.

Auch meine Seele sehnt sich nach der Nacht
und nach des Dunkels taugeperltem Steigen
und will nur lauschen, wie in Rosenpracht
die dunklen Himmelsstunden leuchtend schweigen.

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Confirmed with Wilhelm Weigand, In der Frühe, Leipzig und Berlin: Georg Heinrich Meyer Heimatverlag, 1901, page 27. Appears in Im Übergang.


by Wilhelm Weigand (1862 - 1949)
5. Summer evening
Language: English 
Summer evening! Holy, golden light!
In this gentle glow, the meadow is enkindled.
No sound interrupts this idyllic peace,
In a sense, everything has dissipated.

My soul also longs for the night
And for the dew-pearled advance of the darkness
And I want purely to listen, in this rosy splendor,
To the radiant stillness of the dark, heavenly hours.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2015 by Michael P Rosewall, (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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This text was added to the website: 2015-08-24
Line count: 8
Word count: 59

Translation © by Michael P Rosewall
6. Heiter
 (Sung text)
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Mein Herz ist wie ein See so weit,
Drin lacht dein Antlitz sonnenlicht
In tiefer süßer Einsamkeit,
Wo leise Well' an Well' sich bricht.

Ist's Nacht, ist's Tag? Ich weiß es nicht,
Lacht doch auf mich so lieb und lind
Dein sonnenlichtes Angesicht
Und selig bin ich wie ein Kind.

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by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)
6. Serene
Language: English 
My heart is like a sea so broad,
In which the sunlight of your face laughs
In deep, sweet solitude,
Where wave breaks softly upon wave,

Is it night? Is it day?  I cannot tell;
Smiling upon me so sweetly and soothingly, 
your sunlit face.
And I am as blissful as a child.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2015 by Michael P Rosewall, (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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This is a translation of Webern's version.
Translation of title "Heiter" = "Serene"


This text was added to the website: 2015-08-24
Line count: 8
Word count: 53

Translation © by Michael P Rosewall
7. Der Tod
 (Sung text)
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Ach, es ist so dunkel in des Todes Kammer,
  Tönt so traurig, wenn er sich bewegt
Und nun aufhebt seinen schweren Hammer,
  Und die Stunde schlägt.

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by Matthias Claudius (1740 - 1815)
7. Death
Language: English 
Oh, it is so dark in the chamber of Death,
Sounding so sorrowfully, when he stirs himself;
Now he lifts his brutal hammer,
And the hour tolls.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2015 by Michael P Rosewall, (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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This text was added to the website: 2015-08-24
Line count: 4
Word count: 27

Translation © by Michael P Rosewall
8. Heimgang in der Frühe
 (Sung text)
Language: German (Deutsch) 
In der Dämmerung,
Um Glock' zwei, Glock' dreie,
Trat ich aus der Tür
In die Morgenweihe.

Klanglos liegt der Weg,
Und die Bäume schweigen,
Und das Vogellied
Schläft noch in den Zweigen.

Hör ich hinter mir
Sacht ein Fenster schließen?
Will mein strömend Herz
Übers Ufer fließen?

Sieht mein Sehnen nur
Blond und blaue Farben?
Himmelsrot und Grün
Samt den andern starben.

Ihrer Augen Blau
Küßt die Wölkchenherde,
Und ihr blondes Haar
Deckt die ganze Erde.

Was die Nacht mir gab,
Wird mich lang durchbeben;
Meine Arme weit
Fangen Lust und Leben.

Eine Drossel weckt
Plötzlich aus den Bäumen,
Und der Tag erwacht
Still aus Liebesträumen.

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by Detlev von Liliencron (1844 - 1909)
8.
Language: English 
In the half light,
As the bell peals twice, thrice,
I stepped through the door
Into the solemnity of morning.

The path wends silently,
And the trees are hushed,
And the song of the bird
Slumbers still in the branches.

Do I hear, behind me,
A window gently closing?
Will my rushing heart
Course out of its banks?

Can my yearning perceive only
Blond and blue hues?
Heavenly red and green
Faded along with the others.

The blue of her eyes
Kisses a flock of tiny clouds,
And her blond hair
Blankets the entire earth.

What the night has given to me,
Will long suffuse me; 
My arms, spread wide,
Embrace delight and life.

A thrush calls (wakes)
Suddenly from the trees,
And the day rouses itself
Quietly from its dreams of love.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2015 by Michael P Rosewall, (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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Translation of title "Heimgang in der Frühe" = "Homeward in the morning"


This text was added to the website: 2015-08-24
Line count: 28
Word count: 133

Translation © by Michael P Rosewall