Translation by Johann Gottfried Herder (1744 - 1803)
Love will find out a way
Language: English
Can skill disentangle the meshes of love, or mortal endeavour its torments remove? Your crafty designing his arts will betray, for into your scheming Love will find out a way. And though ye confine him with bolts and with bars, and though ye malign him and mock at his cares, the wandering breezes would bear him away to make of thy torments his sport and his play. Oh wert thou o'er mountains or far o'er the seas, I'd climb every mountain, I'd cross all the seas; or wert thou a bird on the sunlighted spray, to thee, love, to thee, would I find out the way.
Text Authorship:
- from Volkslieder (Folksongs) , appears in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, collected by Thomas Percy [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Leslie Crabtree (b. 1941), "Love will find out a way" [ sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Johann Gottfried Herder (1744 - 1803) , "Weg der Liebe" DUT ENG FRE ; composed by Johannes Brahms, Max Bruch.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 106
Den gordischen Knoten
Language: German (Deutsch) after the English
Den gordischen Knoten, Den Liebe sich band, Kann brechen, kann lösen Ihn sterbliche Hand? Was müht ihr, was sinnet Ihr listigen Zweck? Durch was ihr beginnet, Find't Liebe den Weg. Und wär' er verriegelt, Und wär' er verkannt, Sein Name versiegelt Und nimmer genannt, Mitleidige Winde, Ihr schlüpftet zu mir Und brächtet mir Zeitung Und brächtet ihn mir. Wär'st fern über Bergen, Wär'st [weit]1 über'm Meer: Ich wandert' durch Berge, Ich schwämme durchs Meer; Wärst, Liebchen, ein' Schwalbe Und schlüpftest am Bach, Ich, Liebchen, wär' Schwalbe Und schlüpfte dir nach.
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Brahms: "fern"
Text Authorship:
- by Johann Gottfried Herder (1744 - 1803), "Weg der Liebe" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in English from Volkslieder (Folksongs) , appears in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, collected by Thomas Percy
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897), "Weg der Liebe II", op. 20 (Drei Duette) no. 2 (1858), published 1862 [ duet for soprano and alto with piano ], Bonn, N. Simrock [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Max Bruch (1838 - 1920), "Weg der Liebe II", op. 49 (Lieder und Gesänge für 1 Singstimme mit Pianoforte) no. 6, published 1882 [ voice and piano ], Berlin, Simrock [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , "De weg der liefde II", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Malcolm Wren) , copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Chemin de l'amour", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Alfonso Sebastián) , copyright © 2021, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2003-11-10
Line count: 24
Word count: 91