English translations of Sechs Lieder nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl (Six songs on poems of Georg Trakl), opus 14

by Anton von Webern (1883 - 1945)

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1. Die Sonne
 (Sung text)
by Anton von Webern (1883 - 1945), "Die Sonne", op. 14 (Sechs Lieder nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl (Six songs on poems of Georg Trakl)) no. 1 (1921) [ voice, clarinet, violin, and cello ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Täglich kommt die gelbe Sonne über den Hügel.
Schön ist der Wald, das dunkle Tier,
Der Mensch; Jäger oder Hirt.

Rötlich steigt im grünen Weiher der Fisch.
Unter dem runden Himmel
Fährt der Fischer leise im blauen Kahn.

Langsam reift die Traube, das Korn.
Wenn sich stille der Tag neigt,
Ist ein Gutes und Böses bereitet.

Wenn es Nacht wird,
Hebt der Wanderer leise die schweren Lider;
Sonne aus finsterer Schlucht bricht.

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by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914)
1. The sun
Language: English 
Daily the yellow sun comes over the hill
Beautiful is the forest, the dark animal, 
man, hunter or shepherd.

Red rises the fish in the green pond
Under the round sky the fisherman
goes quietly in the blue bark,

Slowly ripens the grape, the grain.
When the day quietly draws to its end, both a
good and an evil is waiting.

When it becomes night,
the wanderer raises quietly his heavy eyelids,
Sun bursts from the dark ravine.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2008 by Elisabeth Siekhaus, (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: 2008-04-04
Line count: 12
Word count: 78

Translation © by Elisabeth Siekhaus
2. Abendland I
 (Sung text)
by Anton von Webern (1883 - 1945), "Abendland I", op. 14 (Sechs Lieder nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl (Six songs on poems of Georg Trakl)) no. 2 (1919) [ voice, clarinet, violin, and cello ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Mond, als träte ein Totes
Aus blauer Höhle,
Und es fallen der Blüten
Viele über den Felsenpfad.
Silbern weint ein Krankes
Am Abendweiher,
Auf schwarzem Kahn
Hinüberstarben Liebende.

Oder es läuten die Schritte
Elis' durch den Hain
Den Hyazinthenen
Wieder verhallend unter Eichen.
O des Knaben Gestalt
Geformt aus kristallenen Tränen,
Nächtigen Schatten.
Zackige Blitze erhellen die Schläfe
Die immerkühle,
Wenn am grünenden Hügel
Frülingsgewitter ertönt.

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by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914)
2.
Language: English 
Moon, as if a dead being emerged 
from a blue cave.
Scores of blossoms fall 
upon the rocky path. 
Silverly a sick creature weeps 
by the evening pond. 
On a black boat, 
crossing over, lovers died. 

Or Elis’ steps
ring through the grove, 
the hyacinthine, 
again fading away under oaks. 
O - the boy's form 
made of crystalline tears, 
shadows of night. 
Jagged lightning illumes 
his temple, ever cool, 
when o’er the greening hill
spring thunderstorms resound.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2016 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact:

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Note: The title of the collection, "Abendland", could be translated "Occident"


This text was added to the website: 2016-06-24
Line count: 19
Word count: 76

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
3. Abendland II
 (Sung text)
by Anton von Webern (1883 - 1945), "Abendland II", op. 14 (Sechs Lieder nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl (Six songs on poems of Georg Trakl)) no. 3 (1919) [ voice, clarinet, violin, and cello ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
So leise sind die grünen Wälder 
Unsrer Heimat,
Die kristallne Woge
Hinsterbend an verfallner Mauer
Und wir haben im Schlaf geweint;
Wandern mit zögernden Schritten
An der dornigen Hecke hin
Singende im Abendsommer,
In heiliger Ruh
Des fern verstrahlenden Weinbergs;
Schatten nun im kühlen Schoß
Der Nacht, trauernde Adler.
So leise schließt ein mondener Strahl
Die purpurnen Male der Schwermut.

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by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914)
3.
Language: English 
So quiet are the green woods 
of our homeland, 
the crystalline swell 
dying on a ruined wall, 
and we have wept in sleep; 
wand’ring with lingering steps 
down by the thorny hedge.
Singers in summer’s night, 
in the sacred peace 
of the far away glowing vineyard; 
shadows now in the cool womb 
of the night, eagles mourning. 
So quietly does a moonbeam soothe 
the purple stigmata of gloom.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2016 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact:

Based on:

Go to the general single-text view

Note: The title of the collection, "Abendland", could be translated "Occident"


This text was added to the website: 2016-06-24
Line count: 14
Word count: 68

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
4. Abendland III
 (Sung text)
by Anton von Webern (1883 - 1945), "Abendland III", op. 14 (Sechs Lieder nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl (Six songs on poems of Georg Trakl)) no. 4 (1917) [ voice, clarinet, violin, and cello ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Ihr großen Städte
Steinern aufgebaut
In der Ebene!
So sprachlos folgt
Der Heimatlose
Mit dunkler Stirne dem Wind,
Kahlen Bäumen am Hügel.
Ihr weithin dämmernden Ströme!
Gewaltig ängstet
Schaurige Abendröte
Im Sturmgewölk.
Ihr sterbenden Völker!
Bleiche Woge
Zerschellend am Strande der Nacht,
Fallende Sterne.

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by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914)
4.
Language: English 
You mighty cities 
built from stone 
on the plain! 
Speechless with dark brow
the homeless one 
follows the wind, 
leafless trees by the hill. 
You dusking rivers for miles around! 
Tremendous the scare
by an eerie afterglow 
in tempest clouds.
You dying nations! 
Pale wave 
breaking upon the shore of the night, 
falling stars.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2016 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact:

Based on:

Go to the general single-text view

Note: The title of the collection, "Abendland", could be translated "Occident"


This text was added to the website: 2016-06-24
Line count: 15
Word count: 54

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
5. Nachts
 (Sung text)
by Anton von Webern (1883 - 1945), "Nachts", op. 14 (Sechs Lieder nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl (Six songs on poems of Georg Trakl)) no. 5 (1919) [ voice, clarinet, violin, and cello ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Die Bläue meiner Augen ist erloschen in dieser Nacht,
Das rote Gold meines Herzens. O! wie stille brannte das Licht.
Dein blauer Mantel umfing den Sinkenden;
Dein roter Mund besiegelte des Freundes Umnachtung.

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Confirmed with Georg Trakl, Das dichterische Werk, München, 1972, page 56.


by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914)
5. At night
Language: English 
The blue of my eyes has faded this night
the red gold of my heart. Oh how silently burnt the light.
Your blue cloak encircled the sinking one;
your red mouth sealed the friend's enshroudment.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2008 by Elisabeth Siekhaus, (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: 

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Editor's Note: The dictionary definition of "Umnachtung" is "derangement", but in the context of Trakl's death imagery and the word's own roots, it can be taken as more of a "night circling around" or "night closing in".

This text was added to the website: 2008-04-04
Line count: 4
Word count: 35

Translation © by Elisabeth Siekhaus
6. Gesang einer gefangenen Amsel
 (Sung text)
by Anton von Webern (1883 - 1945), "Gesang einer gefangenen Amsel", op. 14 (Sechs Lieder nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl (Six songs on poems of Georg Trakl)) no. 6 (1919) [ voice, clarinet, violin, and cello ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Dunkler Odem im grünen Gezweig.
Blaue Blümchen umschweben das Antlitz
Des Einsamen, den goldenen Schritt
Ersterbend unter dem Ölbaum.
Aufflattert mit trunknem Flügel die Nacht.
So leise blutet Demut,
Tau, der langsam tropft vom blühenden Dorn.
Strahlender Arme Erbarmen
Umfängt ein brechendes Herz.

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Confirmed with Georg Trakl, Das dichterische Werk, München, 1972, page 74.


by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914)
6. Song of a captive blackbird
Language: English 
Dark breath in the green branches. 
Blue flowerets hover round the countenance 
of the forlorn one, the golden step 
dying under the olive tree. 
Night flutters up with a drunken wing. 
So softly humility bleeds, 
dew that slowly drips from the blossoming thorn. 
Mercy of radiant arms 
embraces a breaking heart.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2016 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

    If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact:

Based on:

Go to the general single-text view


This text was added to the website: 2016-06-24
Line count: 9
Word count: 51

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann