I dreamt: the moon gazed sadly

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by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Mir träumte: traurig schien der Mond

(Sung text for setting by L. von Erlanger)

See original

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: CAT ENG FRE

  Mir träumte: traurig schien der Mond,
Und traurig schienen die Sterne;
Es trug mich zur Stadt, wo Liebchen wohnt,
Viel hundert Meilen ferne.

  Es hat mich zu ihrem Hause geführt,
Ich küßte die Steine der Treppe,
Die oft ihr kleiner Fuß berührt
Und ihres Kleides Schleppe.

  Die Nacht war lang, die Nacht war kalt,
Es waren so kalt die Steine;
Es luch aus dem Fenster die blasse Gestalt,
Beleuchtet vom Mondenscheine!

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 128.

Composition:

Ludwig von Erlanger

Text Authorship:

by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), no title, appears in Buch der Lieder, in Die Heimkehr, no. 26

See other settings of this text.

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

CAT Catalan (Català) (Manuel Capdevila i Font) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Emma Lazarus) , appears in Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine, first published 1881
ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "J'étais en rêve: la lune avait un regard triste", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

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

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 76

I dreamt: the moon shone sadly

(Sung text translation for setting by L. von Erlanger)

See original

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

 I dreamt: the moon shone sadly,
And sadly shone the stars;
I was carried to the city where my beloved lives,
Many hundreds of miles away.

I was led to her house,
I kissed the stones of the stoop
That her little foot
And the train of her dress had touched.

The night was long, the night was cold,
The stones were so cold;
Her pale form peers out of the window,
Illumined by moonlight!

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2020 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. 26
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This text was added to the website: 2020-08-26
Line count: 12
Word count: 77