[Durch den Wald im Mondenscheine]1
Sah ich jüngst die Elfen [reuten]2;
Ihre Hörner hört' ich klingen,
Ihre [Glöckchen]3 hört' ich läuten.
 
Ihre weißen Rößlein trugen
[Güldnes]4 Hirschgeweih und flogen
Rasch dahin; wie wilde Schwäne
Kam es durch die Luft gezogen.
 
Lächelnd nickte mir die [Kön'gin]5,
Lächelnd im [Vorüberreuten]6.
Galt das meiner neuen Liebe,
Oder soll es Tod bedeuten?

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Confirmed with Heinrich Heine's sämmtliche Werke. Fünfzehnter Band. Dichtungen. Erster Theil, Hamburg, Hoffmann und Campe, 1876, page 157.

¹ Mendelssohn, Hadley: "In dem Mondenschein im Wald"
² Bürde, Fischer, Mendelssohn: "reiten"
³ Bürde, Mendelssohn: "Glöcklein"
⁴ Bürde, Mendelssohn: "Goldnes"
⁵ Fischer: "Königin"
⁶ Bürde, Fischer, Mendelssohn: "Vorüberreiten"

Text Authorship:

• by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), no title, appears in Neue Gedichte, in Neuer Frühling, no. 32

See other settings of this text.

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

• CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2023, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Marty Lucas) , "New love", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ITA Italian (Italiano) (Nicola Sfredda) , "Nuovo amore (Nella foresta, al chiaro di luna)", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• LIT Lithuanian (Lietuvių kalba) (Giedrius Prunskus) , copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

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

This text was added to the website: 2004-04-30
Line count: 12
Word count: 66

In the forest moonbeam-brightened,
Late last night the elves were riding,
Horns and silver bells resounded
As their throng went past me gliding.

From the foreheads of their horses
Golden antlers were extending,
Swiftly, through the air, like swan-birds
They their rapid way were wending.

Graciously the elf queen beckoned,
On her palfrey backward leaning; --
Did she smile at my new passion,
Or was doom and death her meaning?