LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,026)
  • Text Authors (19,309)
  • 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 (1,112)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856)
Translation by James Thomson (1834 - 1882)

Es stehen unbeweglich
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  FRE
Es stehen unbeweglich
die Sterne in ihrer Höh',
viel tausend Jahr, und schauen
sich an mit Liebesweh.

Sie sprechen eine Sprache,
die ist so reich, so schön;
doch keiner der Philologen
kann diese Sprache verstehn.

Ich aber hab sie gelernet,
und ich vergesse sie nicht;
mir diente als Grammatik
der Herzallerliebsten Gesicht.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Heinrich Heine, Buch der Lieder, Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg, 1827, page 116.


Text Authorship:

  • by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), no title, appears in Buch der Lieder, in Lyrisches Intermezzo, no. 8

See other settings of this text.

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Charles Beltjens) , no title, appears in Intermezzo lyrique, no. 8, first published 1827
  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • POL Polish (Polski) (Aleksander Kraushar) , no title, appears in Pieśni Heinego, in Intermezzo, no. 8, first published 1880


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Pierre Mathé [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 52

[No title]
 (Sung text for setting by J. Becker)
 Matches base text
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
For many thousand ages
The steadfast stars above
Have gazed upon each other
With ever mournful love.

They speak a certain language,
So beautiful, so grand,
Which none of the philologians
Could ever understand.

But I have learned it, learned it
For ever, by the grace
Of studying the grammar --
My heart's own darling's face.

Composition:

    Set to music by John Joseph Becker (1886 - 1961), no title, 1925, from Heine Song Cycle, no. 1

Text Authorship:

  • by James Thomson (1834 - 1882), appears in The poetical works, first published 1895

Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), no title, appears in Buch der Lieder, in Lyrisches Intermezzo, no. 8
    • Go to the text page.

Go to the general single-text view


Researcher for this page: T. P. (Peter) Perrin

This text was added to the website: 2006-04-05
Line count: 12
Word count: 55

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