Die Berge
Language: German (Deutsch)
Our translations: CAT DUT ENG FRE
Sieht uns der Blick gehoben,
So glaubt das Herz die Schwere zu besiegen;
Zu den Himmlischen oben
Will es dringen und fliegen.
Der Mensch, empor geschwungen,
Glaubt schon, er sey durch die Wolken gedrungen.
Bald muß er staunend merken,
Wie ewig fest wir auf uns selbst begründet.
Dann strebt in sichern Werken
Sein ganzes Thun, verbündet,
Vom Grunde nie zu wanken,
Und baut wie Felsen den Bau der Gedanken.
Und dann in neuen Freuden
Sieht er die kühnen Klippen spottend hangen;
Vergessend aller Leiden,
Fühlt er einzig Verlangen,
An dem Abgrund zu scherzen,
Denn hoher Muth schwillt ihm in hohem Herzen.
Confirmed with Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1802. Herausgegeben von A. W. Schlegel und L. Tieck. Tübingen, in der Cotta'schen Buchhandlung, 1802, page 134; and with Friedrich Schlegel's sämmtliche Werke. Erster Band. Gedichte. Berlin, bei Julius Eduard Hitzig, 1809, page 13.
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Les muntanyes", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , "De bergen", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "The mountains", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Les montagnes", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust
[Administrator] , Peter Rastl
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 101
The mountains
Language: English after the German (Deutsch)
If our glance sees us uplifted,
Then the heart believes it can conquer the heaviness,
To the Heavenly Ones above
It desires to surge and to fly;
The man swung upward
Already believes he has penetrated the clouds.
Soon he must realize with astonishment,
How eternally firmly we are based upon ourselves;
Then, all of his actions strive
In definite works, determined
Never to falter from the basis [of his principles],
And [he] builds the edifice of thoughts like rocky crags.
And then in new joys
He sees the bold cliffs mockingly standing;
Forgetting all suffering,
He feels only one yearning --
To jest at the cliff-edge,
For high courage swells within his exalted heart.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2013 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.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2013-10-25
Line count: 18
Word count: 114