LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,104)
  • Text Authors (19,455)
  • 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 Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825 - 1898)
Translation © by Emily Ezust

Reisephantasie
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE
 Mittagsruhe haltend auf den Matten
 In der morschen Burg gezacktem Schatten,
 Vor dem Türmchen eppichübersponnen,
 Hab ich einen Sommerwunsch gesonnen,
 Während ich ein Eidechsschwänzchen blitzen
 Sah - und husch, verschwinden durch die Ritzen...
 Wenn es lauschte... wenn es meiner harrte...
 Wenn - das Pförtchen in der Mauer knarrte...
 Dem Geräusche folgend einer Schleppe,
 Fänd' ich eine schmale Wendeltreppe
 Und, von leiser Hand emporgeleitet,
 Droben einen Becher Wein bereitet...
 Dann im Erker säßen wir alleine,
 Plauderten von nichts im Dämmerscheine,
 Bis der Pendel stünde, der da tickte,
 Und ein blondes Haupt entschlummernd nickte,
 Unter seines Lides dünner Hülle
 Regte sich des blauen Quelles Fülle...
 Und das unbekannte Antlitz trüge
 Ähnlichkeiten und Geschwisterzüge
 Alles Schönen, was mir je entgegen
 Trat auf allen meinen Erdewegen...
 Was ich Tiefstes, Zartestes empfunden,
 Wär' an dieses blonde Haupt gebunden
 Und in eine Schlummernde vereinigt,
 Was mich je beseligt und gepeinigt...
 Dringend hätt' es mich emporgerufen
 Dieser Wendeltreppe Trümmerstufen,
 Daß ich einem ganzen, vollen Glücke
 Stillen Kuß auf stumme Lippen drücke...
 Einmal nur in einem Menschenleben -
 Aber nimmer wird es sich begeben!

Text Authorship:

  • by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825 - 1898) [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 Othmar Schoeck (1886 - 1957), "Reisephantasie", op. 60 no. 3 (1946) [ medium voice and piano ], from Das stille Leuchten: Liederfolge nach Gedichten von Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, no. 3, Wien: Universal Edition [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "Journey-fantasy", copyright ©
  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Fantasme de voyage", copyright © 2021, (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: 32
Word count: 174

Journey‑fantasy
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
 Halting for a midday rest on the meadow
 in the rotting castle's serrated shadow,
 in front of the turret spun with ivy,
 I pondered on a summer wish,
 while I saw a lizard's tail flashing into view
 and whisk! disappearing into the cracks.
 If it were listening... if it were waiting for me...
 if the small door in the wall were to creak...
 following the noise of something dragging,
 I would find a narrow spiral staircase
 and, led upward by a gentle hand,
 a goblet of wine ready above...
 Then in the bay window we would sit alone,
 chatting about nothing in the twilight,
 until the pendulum that ticked there stopped moving,
 and a blond head nodded in slumber,
 and under the thin veil of its lids,
 there would stir the wealth of a blue spring...
 And the unknown face would wear
 the semblance and sister-traits
 to all the beauty I ever came across
 as I wandered all my earthly paths...
 What I had most deeply and tenderly felt 
 was bound to this blond head
 and in this slumbering woman united;
 everything that had ever made me happy or tormented me...
 Urgently it summoned me to ascend
 this spiral staircase with its ruined steps,
 so that on the silent lips of whole and full Good Fortune
 I might press a quiet kiss...
 Just once in all my human life -
 yet it will never happen!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © by Emily Ezust

    Emily Ezust permits her translations to be reproduced without prior permission for printed (not online) programs to free-admission concerts only, provided the following credit is given:

    Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,
    from the LiederNet Archive

    For any other purpose, please write to the e-mail address below to request permission and discuss possible fees.
    licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825 - 1898)
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 32
Word count: 235

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