Die bretterne Kammer
Language: German (Deutsch)
Our translations: CAT DUT ENG FRE ITA
Die bretterne Kammer
Der Todten erbebt,
Wenn zwölfmal den Hammer
Die Mitternacht hebt.
Rasch tanzen um Gräber
Und morsches Gebein
Wir luftigen Schweber
Den sausenden Reihn.
Was winseln die Hunde
Beim schlafenden Herrn?
Sie wittern die Runde
Der Geister von fern.
Die Raben entflattern
Der wüsten Abtei,
Und fliehn an den Gattern
Des Kirchhofs vorbei.
Wir gaukeln, wir scherzen
Hinab und empor,
Gleich irrenden Kerzen
Im dunstigen Moor.
O Herz! dessen Zauber
Zur Marter uns ward,
Du ruhst nun, in tauber
Verdumpfung, erstarrt.
Tief bargst du im düstern
Gemach unser Weh;
Wir Glücklichen flüstern
Dir fröhlich: Ade!
J. Lang sets stanzas 1-5, 7
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Confirmed with Gedichte von Friedrich von Matthisson. Zweiter Theil. Tübingen, bei Cotta, 1811, pages 104-105, and with Schriften von Friedrich von Matthisson, Volume 1, third edition, Zürich: Orell, Füßli und Compagnie, 1825, pages 222-223. The poem is preceded by the following epigraph:
Pulvis et umbra sumus.
Hor.
Text Authorship:
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Research team for this page: Emily Ezust
[Administrator] , Sharon Krebs
[Senior Associate Editor], Peter Rastl
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 28
Word count: 100
Language: English after the German (Deutsch)
The wooden chamber
Of the dead quakes
When midnight lifts the clock’s hammer
Twelve times.
We dance rapidly around graves
And mouldering bones,
We airy hovering ones
Dance our whirling roundelay.
Why do the dogs whine
Beside their sleeping masters?
They sense the circle
Of dancing spirits from afar.
The ravens fly out from
The desolate abbey,
And flee past the fences
Of the churchyard.
We lark about, we jest
Going downward and upward
Like errant candles
In the misty moor.
Oh heart! whose charm
Became a torture to us,
You rest now, frozen
In a mute muffled state.
Deep within the gloomy chamber
You concealed our pain;
We happy ones joyfully
Whisper to you: Adieu!
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Translated titles:
"Der Geistertanz" = "The dance of the spirits"
"Geistertanz" = "Dance of the spirits"
Translation of the epigraph:
We are dust and shadows.
Horace.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2017 by Sharon Krebs, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
Go to the general view
This text was added to the website: 2017-02-22
Line count: 28
Word count: 119
