Nimmer, nimmer darf ich dir gestehen,
Was beim ersten Drucke deiner Hand,
Süße Zauberin, mein Herz empfand!
Meiner Einsamkeit verborgnes Flehen,
Meine Seufzer wird der Sturm verwehen,
Meine Thränen werden ungesehen
Deinem Bilde rinnen, bis die Gruft
Mich in ihr verschwiegnes Dunkel ruft.

Ach! du schautest mir so unbefangen,
So voll Engelunschuld ins Gesicht,
Wähntest den Triumph der Schönheit nicht!
O Theone! Sahst du nicht den bangen
Blick der [Lieb']1 an deinen Blicken hangen?
Schimmerte die Röthe meiner Wangen
Dir nicht Ahnung der verlornen Ruh
Meines hoffnungslosen Herzens zu?

Daß uns Meere doch geschieden hätten
Nach dem ersten [leisen Druck der]3 Hand!
Schaudernd wank' ich nun am [jähen]2 Rand
Eines Abgrunds, wo auf Dornenbetten,
Thränenlos, mit diamantnen Ketten,
Die Verzweiflung lauscht! [Ha!]2 mich zu retten,4 
Holde Feindin meines Friedens, beut 
Mir die Schale der Vergessenheit!

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Gedichte von Friedrich von Matthisson. Erster Theil. Tübingen, bei Cotta, 1811, pages 58-59.

Note: The Tübingen 1811 edition annotates (page 323): "Aus einem unvollendet gebliebenen Romane". The poem was first published 1787 in a slightly different version with the title Theon an Lyda and a motto by Tasso; see below.

¹ Schubert: "Liebe"
² omitted by Schubert.
³ Schubert (Neue Gesamtausgabe): "Drucke deiner"
⁴ A misprinted period in Schubert's source instead of the comma led him to misinterpret this line as:

Die Verzweiflung lauscht, mich zu retten!

Text Authorship:

• by Friedrich von Matthisson (1761 - 1831), "Julius an Theone ", written 1779, appears in Gedichte aus den Studienjahren (1778-1781), first published 1787 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Franz Peter Schubert (1797 - 1828), "Julius an Theone", D 419 (1816), published 1895 [sung text checked 1 time]

Another version of this text exists in the database.

• Go to the text. [ view differences ]
  

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

• CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Juli a Theone", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , "Julius tot Theone", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "Julius [speaks] to Theone", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Julius à Théone", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Melanie Trumbull , Peter Rastl [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 135

Never, never should I confess,
How from that first touch of your hand,
Sweet enchantress, my heart felt!
My loneliness [is a] hidden supplication,
My sigh [of love] is blown away in a storm,
My tears stream unnoticed
For you, until the crypt
Calls me to her secret darkness.

Ah! you looked at me so unselfconsciously,
[With a] face so full of angelic innocence,
You couldn’t comprehend the triumph of [your] beauty!
Oh Theone! did you not see the anxiety
Of love in my eyes?
Didn’t the blush gleaming on my cheeks
Give you a clue to the lost calm
Of my hopeless heart?
If only an ocean had separated us
After that first, soft touch touch of your hand!
Shuddering, I totter now at the edge of
A precipice, where on a bed of thorns,
Dry-eyed, with diamond chains,
Despair listens, to save me!
Graceful enemy of my peace, give 
Me the chalice of oblivion!