How can you sleep peacefully

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by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Wie kannst du ruhig schlafen

(Sung text for setting by P. von Decker)

See original

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG FRE

  Wie kannst du ruhig schlafen,
Und weißt, ich lebe noch?
Der alte Zorn kommt wieder,
Und dann zerbrech' ich mein Joch.

  Kennst du das alte Liedchen:
Wie einst ein toter Knab'
Um Mitternacht die Geliebte
Zu sich geholt ins Grab?

  Glaub' mir, du wunderschönes,
Du wunderholdes Kind,
Ich leb'  und bin noch stärker
Als alle Toten sind!

Confirmed with: Heinrich Heine’s sämtliche Werke in vier Bänden, herausgegeben von Otto F. Lachmann, Erster Band, Leipzig: Druck und Verlag von Philipp Reclam jun, [1887], page 126.

Composition:

Pauline von Decker

Drei Lieder

Text Authorship:

by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), no title, appears in Buch der Lieder, in Die Heimkehr, no. 21, first published 1823-4

See other settings of this text.

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Senior Associate Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 60

How can you sleep peacefully

(Sung text translation for setting by P. von Decker)

See original

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

  How can you sleep peacefully
And know that I still live?
My old wrath rises again,
And then I break my yoke.

  Do you know the old song:
How once a dead lad
Fetched his beloved at midnight
And took her with him into the grave?

  Believe me, you wondrously beautiful,
You wondrously lovely child,
I live and I am even stronger
Than all the dead!

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2024 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 Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), no title, appears in Buch der Lieder, in Die Heimkehr, no. 21, first published 1823-4
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This text was added to the website: 2024-01-13
Line count: 12
Word count: 67