LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,102)
  • Text Authors (19,442)
  • 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 Klaus Groth (1819 - 1899)
Translation © by Leonard Lehrman

Wie Melodien zieht es
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  CAT DUT ENG ENG ENG FRE IRI ITA SPA
Wie Melodien zieht es
Mir leise durch den Sinn,
Wie Frühlingsblumen blüht es,
Und schwebt wie Duft dahin.

Doch kommt das Wort und faßt es
Und führt es vor das Aug',
Wie Nebelgrau erblaßt es
Und schwindet wie ein Hauch.

Und dennoch ruht im Reime
Verborgen wohl ein Duft,
Den mild aus stillem Keime
Ein feuchtes Auge ruft.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Klaus Groth's Gesammelte Werke. Vierter Band. Plattdeutsche Erzählungen - Hochdeutsche Gedichte, Kiel und Leipzig, Verlag von Lipsius & Tischer, 1893, page 177.


Text Authorship:

  • by Klaus Groth (1819 - 1899), no title, appears in Hundert Blätter, Paralipomena zum Quickborn, in Erstes Fünfzig, in Klänge, no. 13, Hamburg, first published 1854 [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 Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897), "Wie Melodien zieht es mir", op. 105 (Fünf Lieder) no. 1 (1886), published 1888 [ voice and piano ], Berlin, Simrock [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954), "Wie Melodien zieht es mir", 1898? [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Com una melodia, quelcom passa", copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , "Als melodieën gloeit het", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "It moves like a melody", copyright ©
  • ENG English [singable] (Shula Keller) , "Just like a melody", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English [singable] (Leonard Lehrman) , "Like melodies", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Comme des mélodies", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , "Mar cheolta sí ag teacht chugam", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Come una melodia", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (Stephen Jackson) , "Se mueve como una melodía", copyright © 2015, (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: 58

Like melodies
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
As sweetest melodies it breezes
So softly through the room
With fragrance that so pleases
As flow'rs of spring in bloom.

But when attached to lyrics
And captured as a prey
It loses all its spirit
And seems to melt away.

And yet there does remain in rhyming
A hidden fragrance dear
Which quietly, with timing,
Can still provoke a tear.

Text Authorship:

  • Singable translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2015 by Leonard Lehrman, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., please ask the copyright-holder(s) directly.

    Leonard Lehrman.  Contact: ljlehrman (AT) nassaulibrary (DOT) org


    If the copyright-holder(s) are unreachable for three business days, please write to: licenses@email.lieder.example.net


Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Klaus Groth (1819 - 1899), no title, appears in Hundert Blätter, Paralipomena zum Quickborn, in Erstes Fünfzig, in Klänge, no. 13, Hamburg, first published 1854
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2015-07-06
Line count: 12
Word count: 61

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