Vier Lieder auf Gedichten von Emily Dickinson

Translations © by Bertram Kottmann

Song Cycle by Leonard Berkowitz (b. 1926)

View original-language texts alone: Four Songs on Poems of Emily Dickinson

1. I'm nobody  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!
They'd [banish us]1, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell [your]2 name the livelong [day]3
To an admiring bog!

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1 Bacon, G. Coates: "advertise"
2 Bacon, G. Coates: "one's"
3 Bacon, G. Coates: "June"

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
1.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Bin ein Niemand! Wer bist du?
Bist auch ein Niemand du?
Dann sind zu zweit wir - sag’s niemand!
Wir würden dann verbannt.

Wie monoton, jemand zu sein -
ein lauter Frosch gleichsam:
Der stellt sich vor, tagaus, tagein
Bewunderern im Schlamm!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) 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

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This text was added to the website: 2016-03-06
Line count: 8
Word count: 40

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
2. Hope  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
Hope is [the]1 thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

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1 Syderman: "a"; further changes may exist not noted.

by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
2.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Hoffnung ist das gefiedert Ding,
das in der Seel' sich regt,
und Lieder ohne Worte singt
aufs Neue unentwegt.

Im Sturm klingt's uns am liebsten drein;
und schlimm muss wehn der Wind,
in dem verstummt das Vöglein klein,
bei dem man Wärme findt.

Ich hört's in bitterkaltem Land,
auf unbekanntem Meer;
doch auch, wenn sich's in Not befand,
hat's nie ein Korn begehrt.

Text Authorship:

  • Singable translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2011 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

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Based on:

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This text was added to the website: 2011-01-17
Line count: 12
Word count: 63

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
3. The wind  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
The Wind took up the Northern Things
And piled them in the south --
Then gave the East unto the West
And opening his mouth

The four Divisions of the Earth
Did make as to devour
While everything to corners slunk
Behind the awful power --

The Wind -- unto his Chambers went
And nature ventured out --
Her subjects scattered into place
Her systems ranged about

Again the smoke from Dwellings rose
The Day abroad was heard --
How intimate, a Tempest past
The Transport of the Bird --

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
3.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Der Wind hob alles hoch im Nord
und ließ es los im Süd -
dann trug den Westen er nach Ost
und schien mit seinem Schlund

bis hin zum fernsten Horizont
die Erde zu verschlingen,
indessen alles sich verkroch,
dem Sturmwind zu entrinnen.

Er zog zurück sich in sein Heim, 
Natur traut sich hervor,
man fand an seinem Platz sich ein,
schuf Ordnung wie zuvor

Rauch stieg aus den Kaminen auf,
vernehmbar Tages Gang.
Wie traulich klingt nach Sturmgebraus
des Vogels Jubelsang.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2020 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:

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This text was added to the website: 2020-03-04
Line count: 16
Word count: 81

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann
4. I never saw a moor  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English 
I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.

I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in heaven;
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given.

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by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
4.
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Ich sah noch nie ein Moor,
sah auch das Meer noch nie,
doch weiß ich von der Heide Flor
und von der Wogen Spiel.

Ich sprach noch nie mit Gott, 
war nie bei ihm zu Gast;
doch bin ich mir des Orts gewiss, 
als wäre er erfasst.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2017 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:

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Translation of title "Chartless" = "Unkartiert"


This text was added to the website: 2017-05-21
Line count: 8
Word count: 47

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann