Novembertages Ende | Zehn Stunden Licht sind am verblassen

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by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

At Day‑Close in November

Language: English

Our translations: FRE GER GER

The ten hours' light is abating,
And a late bird wings across,
Where the pines, like waltzers waiting,
Give their black heads a toss.

Beech leaves, that yellow the noon-time,
Float past like specks in the eye;
I set every tree in my June time,
And now they obscure the sky.

And the children who ramble through here
Conceive that there never has been
A time when no tall trees grew here,
That none will in time be seen.

Text Authorship:

by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "At Day-Close in November", appears in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries with Miscellaneous Pieces, first published 1914 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "At Day-Close in November", op. 52 no. 1 (1953), published 1954 [ high voice and piano ], from Winter words, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Arnold Atkinson Cooke (1906 - 2005), "At Day-Close in November" [ baritone, piano ], from Country Songs [sung text not yet checked]

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

FRE French (Français) (Christopher Park) , "À la tombée du jour en novembre", copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , "Novembertages Ende", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , "Novembertags Ende", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 79

Novembertages Ende

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Zehn Stunden Licht sind am verblassen,
ein später Vogel flattert vorbei,
wo die Kiefern, wie Walzertänzer wartend,
werfen das schwarze Haupt zurück.

Blätter der Buchen vergolden den Mittag,
gaukeln vorbei wie Pünktchen im Auge;
im Sommer meines Lebens pflanzte ich jeden Baum,
und nun verdunklen sie den Himmel.

Und die Kinder, die durch die Gegend streifen,
empfinden, dass hier nie eine Zeit gewesen,
in der keine hohen Bäume wuchsen,
von denen keiner irgendwann zu sehen sein wird.

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2013 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in English by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "At Day-Close in November", appears in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries with Miscellaneous Pieces, first published 1914
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2013-11-04
Line count: 12
Word count: 77