Ein Zaubersang | Stille!/ Schlaf! Oder ich mach'

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 Thomas Randolph (1605 - 1635)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

A charm

Language: English

Our translations: GER

Quiet! 
Sleep! or I will make
Erinnys whip thee with a snake,
And cruel Rhadamanthus take
Thy body to the boiling lake,
Where fire and brimstones never slake;
Thy heart shall burn, thy head shall ache,
And ev'ry joint about thee quake;
And therefor dare not yet to wake!
Quiet, sleep!
Quiet, sleep!
Quiet!

Quiet! 
Sleep! or thou shalt see
The horrid hags of Tartary,
Whose tresses ugly serpants be,
And Cerberus shall bark at thee,
And all the Furies that are three
The worst is called Tisiphone,
Shall lash thee to eternity;
And therefor sleep thou peacefully
Quiet, sleep!
Quiet, sleep!
Quiet!

Text Authorship:

by Thomas Randolph (1605 - 1635) [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), "A charm", op. 41 no. 4, from A Charm of Lullabies, no. 4. [
text verified 1 time
]

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

GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , title 1: "Ein Zaubersang", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Yvonne Helander

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 103

Ein Zaubersang

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Stille!
Schlaf! Oder ich mach',
dass Erynis dich mit einer Schlange peitscht
und der grausame Rhadamanthys
deinen Leib zu einem kochenden See bringt,
wo Feuer und Schwefel nie enden;
das Herz soll dir brennen, der Kopf dir schmerzen,
und jedes Gelenk dir erzittern;
so wage bloß nicht wach zu bleiben!
Stille, schlaf!
Stille, schlaf!
Stille!

Stille!
Schlaf! Sonst kommen sie vorbei,
die gräulichen Hexen der Tartarei,
deren Locken hässliche Schlangen sind,
und der Höllenhund bellt dich an, mein Kind,
und alle Furien, davon gibt’s drei,
die schlimmste Tisiphone sei,
werden dich peitschen für alle Zeit;
drum sei zur Ruhe nun bereit.
Stille, schlaf!
Stille, schlaf!
Stille!

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 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 Randolph (1605 - 1635)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2015-09-09
Line count: 24
Word count: 106