English translations of Acht Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier, opus 17

by Othmar Schoeck (1886 - 1957)

1. Im Sommer  [sung text not yet checked]
by Othmar Schoeck (1886 - 1957), "Im Sommer", op. 17 (Acht Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier) no. 1 (1907) [ medium voice, piano ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Wie Feld und Au
So blinkend im Thau!
Wie Perlen-schwer
Die Pflanzen umher!
[Wie durch den Hain
Die Lüfte so rein!]1
Wie laut, im hellen Sonnenstrahl,
Die süßen Vöglein allzumahl!

Ach! aber da,
Wo Liebchen ich sah,
Im Kämmerlein,
So nieder und klein,
So rings bedeckt,
Der Sonne versteckt --
Wo blieb die Erde weit und breit
Mit aller ihrer Herrlichkeit?

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Confirmed with Geschichte der deutschen Literatur mit ausgewählten Stücken aus den Werken der vorzüglichsten Schriftsteller von Heinrich Kurz, Zweiter Band, Fünfte Auflage, Leipzig, Druck und Verlag von B. G. Teubner, pages 544-545.

Modern German would change the following spellings: "Thau" -> "Tau", "allzumahl" -> "allzumal"

Note: Goethe mistakenly included this poem in his works in 1815. Several composers therefore attributed it erroneously to him (including Wolf and Franz). Referenced in Max Friedlaender's Das deutsche Lied im 18. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, 1902, reprint: Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1962.

1 Franz, Hauptmann, Nägeli, Felix Mendelssohn: "Wie durch's Gebüsch / Die Winde so frisch!"

sometimes misattributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) and by Johann Georg Jacobi (1740 - 1814)
1. Summer song
Language: English 
Like field and meadow
Gleaming in the dew!
Heavy as pearls
Are the plants around!
And through the bushes
The wind is so fresh!
And loud in the bright sunbeam
Are the sweet small birds!
 
Oh, but there
Where my sweetheart I saw
In the little chamber
So lowly and small
Thus covered round about
Hidden from the sun
Where the earth remained far and broad
With all of its splendor!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2011 by David Guess, (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: 2011-04-30
Line count: 16
Word count: 71

Translation © by David Guess
2. Im Herbste
 (Sung text)
by Othmar Schoeck (1886 - 1957), "Im Herbste", op. 17 (Acht Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier) no. 2 (1908) [ medium voice and piano ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Seid gegrüßt mit Frühlingswonne,
Blauer Himmel, goldne Sonne!
Drüben auch aus Gartenhallen
Hör' ich frohe Saiten schallen.

Ahnest du, o Seele wieder
Sanfte, süße Frühlingslieder?
Sieh umher die falben Bäume!
Ach, es waren holde Träume.

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by Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787 - 1862)
2. In Autumn
Language: English 
Greetings to you with springtime joy,
Blue heavens, golden sunlight!
Yonder, too, from the garden bowers
I hear happy strings resounding.

O soul, do you discern once again
Soft, sweet songs of spring?
Look about you at the dun-coloured trees. 
Ah, it was a lovely dream.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2008 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.
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This text was added to the website: 2008-09-03
Line count: 8
Word count: 46

Translation © by Sharon Krebs
3. Der Kirchhof im Frühling  [sung text not yet checked]
by Othmar Schoeck (1886 - 1957), "Der Kirchhof im Frühling", op. 17 (Acht Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier) no. 3 (1908) [ medium voice and piano ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Stiller Garten, eile nur,
Dich mit jungem Grün zu decken,
Und des Bodens letzte Spur
Birg mit dichten Rosenhecken!

Schließe fest den schwarzen Grund!
Denn sein Anblick macht mir bange,
Ob er keines aus dem Bund
Meiner Liebsten abverlange.

Will mich selbst die dumpfe Gruft,
Nun wohlan, sie mag mich raffen!
Dünkt mir gleich, in frischer Luft
Hätt ich manches noch zu schaffen.

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by Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787 - 1862)
3.
[Translation not yet available]
4. Peregrina
 (Sung text)
by Othmar Schoeck (1886 - 1957), "Peregrina", op. 17 (Acht Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier) no. 4 (1909) [ voice and piano ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Ein Irrsal kam in die Mondscheingärten
Einer einst heiligen Liebe. 
Schaudernd entdeckt' ich verjährten Betrug. 
Und mit weinendem Blick, doch grausam,
Hieß ich das schlanke,
Zauberhafte Mädchen
Ferne gehen von mir. 
Ach, ihre hohe Stirn,
War gesenkt, denn sie liebte mich;
Aber sie zog mit Schweigen
Fort in die graue 
Welt hinaus. 

Krank seitdem,
Wund ist und wehe mein Herz. 
Nimmer wird es genesen! 

Als ginge, luftgesponnen, ein Zauberfaden
Von ihr zu mir, ein ängstig Band,
So zieht es, zieht mich schmachtend ihr nach! 
-- Wie? Wenn ich eines Tags auf meiner Schwelle
Sie sitzen fände, wie einst, im Morgen-Zwielicht,
Das Wanderbündel neben ihr,
Und ihr Auge, treuherzig zu mir aufschauend, 
Sagte, da bin ich wieder
Hergekommen aus weiter Welt!

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Confirmed with Mörike, Eduard Friedrich. Gesammelte Schriften, Erster Band, G. J. Göschen'sche Verlagshandlung, 1878, pages 135-136.

by Eduard Mörike (1804 - 1875)
4. Peregrina
Language: English 
Something wrong entered the moonlit gardens
of a once sacred love.
I trembled when I discovered a long-past betrayal
and with a tearful but cruel look
I told the slim
enchanting girl
to take herself off away from me.
Oh, her high forehead
sank down, for she loved me;
but silently away she went,
off into the grey world.

Sick since then,
my heart has been wounded and in pain.
It will never heal!

It is as if there were a magical thread, spun by the air,
from her to me, a connecting anxiety,
a pull, drawing me, pining, back to her.
How? If only one day on my doorstep
I were to find her sitting, as once before, in the morning twilight, 
her travelling things next to her,
and her eye, looking at me trueheartedly, 
would say, 

"Here I am again,
I've come back from the wide world."

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2005 by Malcolm Wren, (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: 2005-04-11
Line count: 24
Word count: 149

Translation © by Malcolm Wren
5. Gekommen ist der Maie  [sung text not yet checked]
by Othmar Schoeck (1886 - 1957), "Gekommen ist der Maie", op. 17 (Acht Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier) no. 5 (1904), published 1909 [ low voice, piano ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Gekommen ist der [Maye]1,
Die Blumen und Bäume blühn,
Und durch [die Himmelsbläue]2
Die [rosigen]3 Wolken ziehn.

Die [Nachtigallen]4 singen
Herab aus [der laubigen]5 Höh,
Die weißen Lämmer springen
Im weichen grünen Klee.

[Ich kann nicht singen und springen]6,
Ich liege krank im Gras;
Ich höre fernes Klingen,
Mir träumt, ich weiß nicht was.

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Confirmed with Heinrich Heine, Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke, herausgegeben von Manfred Windfuhr, Band 2, Neue Gedichte, bearbeitet von Elisabeth Genton, Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1983, pages 13-14.

1 Curschmann, Marek: "Maie"
2 Franz: "des Himmels Bläue"
3 Curschmann: "ros'gen"
4 Curschmann: "lust'gen Vöglein"
5 Curschmann: "luftiger"
6 Curschmann: "Doch ich kann nicht springen und singen"

by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856)
5. May has come
Language: English 
May has come,
The flowers and the trees blossom,
And through the blue of heaven
The rosy clouds travel.

The [nightingales]1 are singing
Down from the [leafy]2 heights,
The white lambs are leaping about
In the soft green clover.

[I cannot sing and leap]3,
Ill I lie in the grass;
I hear a distant ringing,
I am dreaming I know not what.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2020 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.
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Translations of title(s):
"Neuer Frühling" = "New spring"
"Mailied" = "May-song"
"Zum ersten Mai" = "For the first of May"
"Frühlingsankunft" = "Spring's arrival"
"Ungestillte Sehnsucht" = "Unassuaged yearning"
"Im Mai" = "In May"
"Duett" = "Duet"
"Der Mai" = "May"
"Frühlingslied" = "Spring song"
"Gekommen ist der Maie" = "May has come"
"Der neue Frühling" = "The new spring"

1 Curschmann: "merry birdlets"
2 Curschmann: "airy"
3 Curschmann: "But I cannot leap and sing"


This text was added to the website: 2020-03-12
Line count: 12
Word count: 66

Translation © by Sharon Krebs
6. Auf einer Burg
 (Sung text)
by Othmar Schoeck (1886 - 1957), "Auf einer Burg", op. 17 (Acht Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier) no. 6 (1909) [ voice and piano ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
  Eingeschlafen auf der Lauer
Oben ist der alte Ritter;
Drüber gehen Regenschauer
Und der Wald rauscht durch das Gitter.

  Eingewachsen Bart und Haare
Und versteinert Brust und Krause,
Sitzt er viele hundert Jahre
Oben in der stillen Klause.

  Draußen ist es still und friedlich,
Alle sind ins Thal gezogen,
Waldesvögel einsam singen
In den leeren Fensterbogen.

  Eine Hochzeit fährt da unten
Auf dem Rhein im Sonnenscheine,
Musikanten spielen munter,
Und die schöne Braut die weinet.

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Confirmed with Gedichte von Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, Leipzig: C.F. Amelangs Verlag, 1892, page 28.


by Joseph Karl Benedikt, Freiherr von Eichendorff (1788 - 1857)
6. In a castle
Language: English 
Asleep on his watch
up there is the old knight;
above move rainshowers,
and the wood rustles through the grill.

Beard and hair grown into one,
chest and ruff have turned to stone;
he sits for many hundreds of years
above in his silent den.

Outside it is quiet and peaceful:
all have taken to the valley;
woodbirds sing alone
in the empty arching windows.

A wedding passes by below
on the Rhine, in the sunlight:
musicians play gaily
and the fair bride - she weeps.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © by Emily Ezust

    Emily Ezust permits her translations to be reproduced without prior permission for printed (not online) programs to free-admission concerts only, provided the following credit is given:

    Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,
    from the LiederNet Archive

    For any other purpose, please write to the e-mail address below to request permission and discuss possible fees.


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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 85

Translation © by Emily Ezust
7. Erinnerung  [sung text not yet checked]
by Othmar Schoeck (1886 - 1957), "Erinnerung", op. 17 (Acht Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier) no. 7 (1909) [ voice and piano ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Ich hör' [die]1 Bächlein rauschen
Im Walde her und hin,
Im Walde in dem Rauschen
Ich weiß nicht, wo ich bin.

Die Nachtigallen schlagen
Hier in der Einsamkeit,
Als wollten sie was sagen
Von [der alten, schönen]2 Zeit.

Die Mondesschimmer fliegen,
Als [seh']3 ich unter mir
Das Schloß im Thale liegen,
[Und ist]4 doch so weit von hier!

Als müßte in dem Garten
Voll Rosen weiß und roth,
[Meine]5 Liebste auf mich warten,
Und ist [doch lange]6 todt.

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Confirmed with Gedichte von Joseph Freiherrn von Eichendorff, Verlag von Duncker und Humblot, Berlin, 1837, pages 33-34.

Note: modernized spelling would change "Thale" to "Tale", "roth" to "rot", and "todt" to "tot"

1 Ivers, Stern: "ein"; further changes may exist not shown above
2 Marx: "alter, schöner"
3 Dresel, Jaques-Dalcroze, Marx, Schumann: "säh"
4 Banck: "Ist"
5 Banck: "Mein'"; Dresel: "Die"; Marx: "Der"
6 Marx: "schon lange"; Schumann: "doch so lange"

by Joseph Karl Benedikt, Freiherr von Eichendorff (1788 - 1857)
7.
Language: English 
I hear the brooklets rushing
here and there in the wood.
In the wood, amidst the rushing,
I know not where I am.

The nightingales sing
here in the solitude,
as if they wanted to speak
of fine old times.

The moonbeams dart
and I seem to see below me
a castle lying in the valley -
yet it is so far from here!

It seems as if, in the garden
full of roses white and red,
my sweetheart were waiting for me -
yet she is long since dead.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © by Emily Ezust

    Emily Ezust permits her translations to be reproduced without prior permission for printed (not online) programs to free-admission concerts only, provided the following credit is given:

    Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,
    from the LiederNet Archive

    For any other purpose, please write to the e-mail address below to request permission and discuss possible fees.


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Translation of title "In der Fremde" = "In a foreign place"


This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 88

Translation © by Emily Ezust
8. Der frohe Wandersmann  [sung text not yet checked]
by Othmar Schoeck (1886 - 1957), "Der frohe Wandersmann", op. 17 (Acht Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier) no. 8 (1909) [ voice and piano ]
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Wem Gott will rechte Gunst erweisen,
Den schickt er in die weite Welt,
Dem will er seine Wunder weisen
In Berg und Wald und Strom und Feld.

Die Trägen, die zu Hause liegen,
Erquicket nicht das Morgenrot,
Sie wissen nur vom Kinderwiegen,
Von Sorgen, Last und Not [um]1 Brot.

Die Bächlein von den Bergen springen,
Die Lerchen schwirren hoch vor Lust,
Was sollt' ich nicht mit ihnen singen
Aus voller Kehl' und frischer Brust?

Den lieben Gott [laß ich nur]2 walten;
Der Bächlein, Lerchen, [Wald]3 und Feld,
Und Erd' und Himmel will erhalten,
Hat auch mein Sach' aufs Best' bestellt.

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1 Schumann: "ums"
2 Fröhlich, Schumann: "nur laß' ich"
3 Schumann: "Wind"

by Joseph Karl Benedikt, Freiherr von Eichendorff (1788 - 1857)
8. The happy wanderer
Language: English 
 When God wishes to show true favour to someone,
 he sends him out into the wide world
 and points out his miracles
 in mountain and wood and river and field.
 
 The indolent ones who laze at home
 are not refreshed by the dawn;
 they only know about rearing children,
 about cares, burdens and miseries - and all for bread.
 
 The brook springs out of the mountains,
 the larks zip high with pleasure;
 is there anything I should not sing with them
 with full throat and fresh spirit?
 
 Let dear God alone prevail;
 He sustains the brook, the larks, the wind and field,
 and the earth and sky;
 and he has also ordered my life for the best.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © by Emily Ezust

    Emily Ezust permits her translations to be reproduced without prior permission for printed (not online) programs to free-admission concerts only, provided the following credit is given:

    Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,
    from the LiederNet Archive

    For any other purpose, please write to the e-mail address below to request permission and discuss possible fees.


Based on:

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This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 117

Translation © by Emily Ezust