LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,103)
  • Text Authors (19,450)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Justinus (Andreas Christian) Kerner (1786 - 1862)
Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Wohl müßt' ich herzlich weinen
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  ENG
Wohl müßt' ich herzlich weinen,
Herz! wärst du wirklich tot,
Und könnt' mich nichts mehr einen
Mit dir in Freud' und Not.

Doch, sieh, seit du gestorben
(Weiß nicht, wie mir geschah),
Hab' ich dich erst erworben,
Herz, bist du erst mir nah.

Nicht Berg' und Tale trennen,
O Herz! mich mehr von dir,
Leis darf ich dich nur nennen,
Da bist du schon bei mir;

Dann legt sich schnell die Welle
Im Herzen stürmischtrüb,
Und in mir wird es helle
Und um mich alles lieb.

Die andern nicht begreifen,
Was Sel'ges ich ersah!
Was die nicht schauen, greifen,
Das ist für sie nicht da.

Die wissen nichts von drüben,
Die wissen nur von hier,
Nicht wie sich Geister lieben,
Doch, Herz! - das wissen wir!

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes
Confirmed with Kerners Werke, Zweiter Teil, Gedichte, ed. Raimund Pissin, Berlin, Leipzig, Wien, Stuttgart: Deutsches Verlagshaus Bong & Co., 1914, pages 26-27.


Text Authorship:

  • by Justinus (Andreas Christian) Kerner (1786 - 1862), "Nähe des Toten", appears in Gedichte, in Die lyrischen Gedichte [author's text checked 1 time 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):

  • possibly by Christian Wilhelm Häser (1781 - 1867), "Nähe der Geliebten Todten", op. 37 (Neun deutsche Lieder) no. 7, note: score gives composer as "Wilhelm Haeser" [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) [singable] (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist)


Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2008-07-30
Line count: 24
Word count: 129

I would have to weep deeply
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
I would have to weep deeply,
Heart! if you were truly dead,
And if nothing could ever unite me again
With you in joy and suffering.

But see, since you died
(I do not know what happened to me),
Only then did I truly attain you,
Heart, only since then are you truly near me.

Not mountains and valleys separate
Me any longer from you, oh heart!
I only have to call out your name quietly,
Then you are already with me;

Then the wave quickly subsides
In my heart that was dreary with storms,
And within me it becomes bright
And everything around me becomes lovely.

The others do not comprehend
What a blissful thing I see!
What they do not see, grasp,
That does not exist for them.

They know nothing of the hereafter,
They only know of here,
They know not how spirits love,
But, heart! - that is what we know!

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes

Translated titles:
"Nähe des Toten" = "Nearness of the dead one"
"Nähe der Geliebten Todten" = "Nearness of the beloved dead"


Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2013 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.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Justinus (Andreas Christian) Kerner (1786 - 1862), "Nähe des Toten", appears in Gedichte, in Die lyrischen Gedichte
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2013-10-14
Line count: 24
Word count: 158

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris