from Volkslieder (Folksongs)
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:

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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

Language: German (Deutsch)  after the English 
Our translations:  CAT DUT ENG FRE SPA
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 fern 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.

Composition:

    Set to music 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

Text Authorship:

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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