Greetings to you, my affectionate piano!

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by Johann Timotheus Hermes (1738 - 1821)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

An das Klavier

(Sung text for setting by J. Kraus)

See original

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG FRE

  Sei mir gegrüsst mein schmeichelndes Clavier!
Was keine Sprache richtig nennt,
die Krankheit tief in mir
die mir mein Mund bekennt
die klag ich dir!
 
   Dich o Clavier erfand ein Menschenfreund,
ein Mann der traurig war, wie ich.
Er hat, wie ich, geweint!
Voll Kummer schuf er dich
für sich und mich.
 
   Und Heil sei ihm, Vertauter meiner Brust
Heil sei dem Mann, der dich erfand!
Hat ihn, der Schmerz und Lust
an deine Saiten band,
kein Stein genannt

Composition:

Joseph Martin Kraus

Text Authorship:

by Johann Timotheus Hermes (1738 - 1821), no title, appears in Sophiens Reise von Memel nach Sachsen

See other settings of this text.

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani , Sharon Krebs [Senior Associate Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2007-07-03
Line count: 15
Word count: 86

To the piano

(Sung text translation for setting by J. Kraus)

See original

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

   Greetings to you, my affectionate piano!
What no language can utter correctly,
The sickness deep within me
that my lips confess to me,
I lament to you!
 
   You, oh piano, were invented by a friend of mankind,
A man who was sad, as I am.
Like me, he wept!
Full of sorrow he created you
For himself and for me.
 
  And praise be to him, confidant of my bosom,
Praise to the man who invented you!
He who bound pain and joy
To your strings, is his name
Not engraved upon any stone?

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2016 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 Johann Timotheus Hermes (1738 - 1821), no title, appears in Sophiens Reise von Memel nach Sachsen
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This text was added to the website: 2016-05-18
Line count: 15
Word count: 97