LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,103)
  • Text Authors (19,447)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by J. Wilhelm Meinhold (1797 - 1851)
Translation © by Guy Laffaille

Wie dies Gewürm aus unermess'nem Meer
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE
Wie dies Gewürm aus unermess'nem Meer,
Taucht auch der Mensch aus deinem dunklen Schooß,
Unendlichkeit, und ahnet nicht, woher! --
So klimmt er [auch]1 auf seinen Erdenkloß,
Von Thränen feucht, und tastet um sich her,
Ob er ergreif' ein wenig Gras und Moos
Für seinen Mund, und er ergreift's so schwer! --
Der arme Mensch, wie trüb' ist doch sein Loos!
Er ahnet nichts und mühet sich so sehr,
Da kommt die Flut, da wird die Welle groß,
Und er versinket wiederum ins Meer! -- --

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   P. Hindemith 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
Confirmed with Gedichte von Wilhelm Meinhold, Zweiter Band, Vermischte Gedichte. Dritte verbesserte und vermehrte Auflage, Leipzig, Verlag von J. J. Weber, 1846, p. 25

Modernized spellings (used by Hindemith): Schooß -> Schoß ; Thränen -> Tränen; Loos -> Los
1 Hindemith: "denn"

Text Authorship:

  • by J. Wilhelm Meinhold (1797 - 1851), "Der Wurm am Meere" [author's text checked 1 time 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 Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963), "Der Wurm am Meer", op. 35, Heft 2 no. 6 (1924) [soprano, oboe, viola, and cello], from Die Serenaden, no. 6. [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

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

  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , title 1: "Le ver à la mer", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , title 1: "The sea-serpent", copyright © 2015


Researcher for this page: Martin Jahn

This text was added to the website: 2008-11-26
Line count: 11
Word count: 83

Le ver à la mer
Language: French (Français)  after the German (Deutsch) 
Comme le ver hors de la mer sans limite,
L'homme émerge aussi de tes entrailles sombres,
Infinité, sans pressentiment, donc !
Ainsi il grimpe sur sa motte de terre,
Mouillé de larmes, et se dirige à tâtons autour d'elle,
Pour saisir un peu d'herbe et de mousse
Pour se nourrir, et qu'il saisit avec tant d'effort,
Pauvre homme, comme son sort est terne !
Il ne pressent rien et se fatigue tant,
Alors vient la marée, la vague grossit,
Et il s'enfonce à nouveau dans la mer !

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to French (Français) copyright © 2014 by Guy Laffaille, (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 J. Wilhelm Meinhold (1797 - 1851), "Der Wurm am Meere"
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2014-01-27
Line count: 11
Word count: 85

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris