The thunderstorm evening | O these glowing evening hours!

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by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Der Gewitterabend

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG FRE ITA

O die roten Abendstunden!
Flimmernd schwankt am offenen Fenster
Weinlaub wirr ins Blau gewunden,
Drinnen nisten Angstgespenster.

Staub tanzt im Gestank der Gossen.
Klirrend stößt der Wind in Scheiben.
Einen Zug von wilden Rossen
Blitze grelle Wolken treiben,

Laut zerspringt der Weiherspiegel.
Möwen schrein am Fensterrahmen.
Feuerreiter sprengt vom Hügel
Und zerschellt im Tann zu Flammen.

Kranke kreischen im Spitale.
Bläulich schwirrt der Nacht Gefieder.
Glitzernd braust mit einem Male
Regen auf die Dächer nieder.

Text Authorship:

by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914), "Der Gewitterabend", appears in Gedichte 1909 -1913 [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 Hans Uwe Strübing (b. 1956), "Der Gewitterabend", op. 89 (Vier Lieder) no. 3 (2007), first performed 2011 [ soprano and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Jan Stuten (1890 - 1948), "Der Gewitterabend", published 1936? [ low voice and chamber orchestra or piano ], from Die vier Jahreszeiten, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Bertram Kottmann) , "The thunderstorm evening", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Soir d'orage", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Sera di tempesta", copyright © 2007, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Harry Joelson

This text was added to the website: 2007-07-29
Line count: 16
Word count: 75

The thunderstorm evening

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

O these glowing evening hours! 
Vine leaves by the open window 
sway and shimmer, blue entangled.
Indoors ghosts of anguish nestle. 

Dust whirls in the stench of gutters. 
Gusts of wind knock at the windows. 
Like a mob of frenzied horses 
lurid clouds driven by lightnings. 

Loudly the pond’s surface shatters. 
Gulls cry at the casement windows. 
Fire-rider downhill thunders
smashed to flames in yonder forest. 

Shrieks in hospital from patients. 
Bluish the night's feathers whirring. 
All at once a glistening bluster
of the rain upon the housetops.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2016 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 German (Deutsch) by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914), "Der Gewitterabend", appears in Gedichte 1909 -1913
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-06-20
Line count: 16
Word count: 88