Schlaf, schlaf, schönes Kind

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by William Blake (1757 - 1827)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

A cradle song

(Sung text for setting by B. Britten)

See original

Language: English

Our translations: GER

Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,
Dreaming o'er the joys of night;
Sleep, sleep, in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit and weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace,
Secret joys and secret smiles,
Little pretty infant wiles.

 ... 

O! the cunning wiles that creep 
In thy little heart asleep. 
When thy little heart does wake 
Then the dreadful lightnings break, 

From thy cheek and from thy eye, 
O'er the youthful harvests nigh. 
Infant wiles and infant smiles 
Heaven and Earth of peace beguiles.

Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-2,4-5 of the original text.

Composition:

(Edward) Benjamin Britten

A Charm of Lullabies

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "A cradle song", written c1793, appears in Notebook, possibly intended for Songs of Innocence

See other settings of this text.

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

GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Geoffrey Wieting

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 109

Ein Wiegenlied

(Sung text translation for setting by B. Britten)

See original

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Schlaf, schlaf, schönes Kind
Freud’ in deinen Träumen find’;
schlaf, schlaf,  wenig Leid
macht in deinem Schlaf sich breit.

Süßes, ich erspür
zarten Keim der Lust in dir,
Freuden, Lächeln, noch versteckt,
Streiche, künftig ausgeheckt.

 ... 

Ach! Es schleicht sich Tücke, List
in dein Herz, wenn’s schlafend ist.
Wenn dein kleines Herz erwacht,
zuckt’s aus dir mit Blitzes Macht:

Tücke, List setzt unverwandt
dann der Jugend Haus in Brand.
Kindes Lächeln, Kindes List
schüren allseits Zank und Zwist.

Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-2,4-5 of the original text.

Text Authorship:

Singable translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in English by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "A cradle song", written c1793, appears in Notebook, possibly intended for Songs of Innocence
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This text was added to the website: 2015-09-01
Line count: 20
Word count: 97