Yearning for home | Our little boat drifts

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by Julius Karl Reinhold Sturm (1816 - 1896)

Translation © by Laura Prichard

Heimweh

Language: German (Deutsch)

Available translation(s): ENG FRE

Unser Schifflein treibt umher
auf des Lebens weitem Meer,
treibt nach einem fernen Strande;
seine Segel schwellen auf,
und es lenket seinen Lauf
Sehnsucht nach dem Vaterlande.
 
Ach, daheim, daheim, wie gern
wären wir bei unserm Herrn,
wo die Liebe nicht erkaltet,
wo der Friede ewig währt 
und die Freude sich verklärt 
und die Jugend nimmer altet.
 
Heisser flammt die Sehnsucht auf, 
schneller geht des Schiffleins Lauf, 
Well' um Welle fliegt vorüber. 
Aus den Fluten steight ein Stern; 
dorthin liegt das Reich des Herrn! 
Ach, hinüber, nur hinüber!

Confirmed with Julius Sturm, Fromme Lieder, Leipzig, F.A. Brockhaus, third edition, 1858, page 88.

Authorship:

by Julius Karl Reinhold Sturm (1816 - 1896), "Heimweh", appears in Fromme Lieder [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 Max Reger (1873 - 1916), "Heimweh", 1900 [ voice, organ ], from Zwei geistliche Lieder, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "Yearning for home", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Mal du pays", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Melanie Trumbull

This text was added to the website: 2015-08-07
Line count: 18
Word count: 88

Yearning for home

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Our little boat drifts
on the wide sea of life,
floating toward a distant beach;
its sails swell,
and it steers a course
yearning for its native land¹ .
 
Ah, home, home, how much
we would like [to be] with our Lord,
where love does not chill,
where peace endures forever 
and joy is transfigured 
and youth never ages.
 
Desire blazes up, 
the little boat surges ahead, 
flying over wave after wave. 
Over the waters rises a star; 
there is the kingdom of the Lord! 
Ah, over there, just there!

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ or "homeland"; or "heavenly country / kingdom"

Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2015 by Laura Prichard, (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:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Julius Karl Reinhold Sturm (1816 - 1896), "Heimweh", appears in Fromme Lieder

This text was added to the website: 2015-09-29
Line count: 18
Word count: 90