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Drei Nachtstücke
Translations © by Bertram Kottmann
Song Cycle by Daniel Gilliam (b. 1978)
View original-language texts alone: Three Nocturnes
This is thy hour, O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best, Night, sleep, death, and the stars.
Text Authorship:
- by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "A clear midnight"
See other settings of this text.
Portions of this text were used in Idyll by Frederick Delius.
Dies deine Stund, o Seel’, dein Flug ins Reich, befreit vom Wort, hinweg von Büchern und von Kunst, gelöscht der Tag, das Werk getan, hebst ganz und gar empor dich, stille, staunend, sinnend über das, was kostbar dir: Nacht, Schlaf und Tod und die Gestirn'.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2018 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: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "A clear midnight"
Go to the general single-text view
Translation of title "A clear midnight" = "Heitere Mitternacht"This text was added to the website: 2018-11-20
Line count: 4
Word count: 45
The young May moon is beaming; love,
The glow-worm's lamp is gleaming, love,
How sweet to rove
Through Morna's grove,
When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!
Then awake! The heavens look bright, my dear,
'Tis never too late for delight, [my dear,]1
And best of all ways
To lengthen [our]1 days
Is to steal a few hours from the night, my [dear!]2
Now all the world is sleeping, love.
But the Sage, his star-watch keeping, love,
And I, whose star,
More glorious far,
Is the eye from that casement peeping, love.
Then awake ! — till rise of sun, my dear,
The Sage's glass we'll shun, my dear.
Or, in watching the flight
Of bodies of light,
He might happen to take thee for one, my dear.
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Moore (1779 - 1852), "The young May Moon", appears in Irish Melodies
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Thomas Moore, A New Edition from the last London Edition, Boston: Lee and Shepard; New York: Lee, Shepard, & Dillingham, 1876.
1 omitted by Ives2 Ives: "my dear,/ When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!"
Der Maimond ist am schimmern, Lieb, Glühwürmchens Lampen flimmern, Lieb, Ich streif’ allein durch Mornas Hain, und ihr träumt in stillen Zimmern, Lieb! So wach auf! Mondhell ist es just, mein Lieb, und niemals zu spät für die Lust, mein Lieb, denn für alle, die wir wollen alt werden hier, ist die Nacht, die zum Tag, kein Verlust, mein Lieb! Wer schliefe jetzt nicht gerne, Lieb. Doch der Weise schaut in die Sterne, Lieb, auch ich, mein Ziel: Dein Blick, so grazil hinterm Fenster dort, mir so ferne, Lieb. So wach auf! Bis steigt das Licht, mein Lieb, erspäht sein Glas uns nicht, mein Lieb, könnt’ der Weise doch gern dich halten für Stern’, deine Augen, dein strahlend Gesicht, mein Lieb.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2018 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: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Thomas Moore (1779 - 1852), "The young May Moon", appears in Irish Melodies
Go to the general single-text view
Translation of title "A night song" = "Ein Nachtlied"This text was added to the website: 2018-11-20
Line count: 20
Word count: 121
A long, long sleep, a famous sleep That makes no show for dawn By stretch of limb or stir of lid, -- An independent one. Was ever idleness like this? Within a hut of stone To bask the centuries away Nor once look up for noon?
Ein langer Schlaf, der allbekannt, ein Schlaf, den morgens kein sich recken mehr, kein Blinzeln bannt? Ein Schlaf, der ganz allein dem Nichtstun frommt, der steten Ruh’? In einem Haus aus Stein sich wärmen, sonnen immerzu und nie mehr achtsam sein?
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2018 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: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
Go to the general single-text view
This text was added to the website: 2018-11-20
Line count: 8
Word count: 41