English translations of Zwei Gesänge, opus 10
by Erich J. Wolff (1874 - 1913)
Ihr wandelt droben im Licht
Auf weichem Boden, selige Genien!
Glänzende Götterlüfte
Rühren euch leicht,
Wie die Finger der Künstlerin
Heilige Saiten.
Schicksallos, wie der schlafende
Säugling, atmen die Himmlischen;
Keusch bewahrt
In bescheidener Knospe,
Blühet ewig
Ihnen der Geist,
Und die seligen Augen
Blicken in stiller
Ewiger Klarheit.
Doch uns ist gegeben,
Auf keiner Stätte zu ruh'n;
Es schwinden, es fallen
Die leidenden Menschen
Blindlings von einer
Stunde zur andern,
Wie Wasser von Klippe
Zu Klippe geworfen,
Jahrlang in's Ungewisse hinab.
Text Authorship:
- by Friedrich Hölderlin (1770 - 1843), "Hyperions Schicksalslied", written 1798, appears in Gedichte 1784-1800
See other settings of this text.
Note: Hyperion is the title character of an unfinished novel in which Hölderlin wrote about the Greek struggle for independence from the Turks.
You wander above in the light
on soft ground, blessed genies!
Blazing, divine breezes
brush by you as lightly
as the fingers of the player
on her holy strings.
Fateless, like sleeping
infants, the divine beings breathe,
chastely protected
in modest buds,
blooming eternally
their spirits,
and their blissful eyes
gazing in mute,
eternal clarity.
Yet there is granted us
no place to rest;
we vanish, we fall -
the suffering humans -
blind from one
hour to another,
like water thrown from cliff
to cliff,
for years into the unknown depths.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 1995 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,
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Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) by Friedrich Hölderlin (1770 - 1843), "Hyperions Schicksalslied", written 1798, appears in Gedichte 1784-1800
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Translations of titles
"Hyperions Schicksalslied" = "Hyperion's song of Fate"
"Schicksalslied" = "Song of Fate"
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 90
Nacht... Nacht... in Nacht sanken wir. Urgestein sind wir geworden
. . . . . . . . . .
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