Alt geworden bist Du, grünes Jahr, Blickst schon welk und trägst schon Schnee im Haar, Gehst schon müd und hast den Tod im Schritt- Ich begleite Dich, ich sterbe mit. Zögernd geht das [Herz den bangen]1 Pfad, Angstvoll schläft im Schnee die Wintersaat. Wieviel Äste brach mir schon der Wind, Deren Narben nun mein Panzer sind! Wieviel bittere Tode starb ich schon! Neugeburt war jedes Todes Lohn. Sei willkommen, Tod, du dunkles Tor! Jenseits läutet hell des Lebens Chor.
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View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Hermann Hesse, Sämtliche Werke, herausgegeben von Volker Michels, Band 10 Die Gedichte, bearbeitet von Peter Huber, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2002, pages 262-263.
1 Scholz: "bange Herze den"Text Authorship:
- by Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962), "Erster Schnee", written 1919 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Karl Scholz , "Erster Schnee", 1958 [ voice and piano ], from Drei Gedichte von Hermann Hesse, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Primera neu", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "First snowfall", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Laura Kinderman) , "First snow", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Première neige", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2009-06-04
Line count: 12
Word count: 80