O night, you wordless gate into my harm

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by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

O Nacht, du stummes Tor vor meinem Leid

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG FRE

O Nacht, du stummes Tor vor meinem Leid,
Verbluten sieh dies dunkle Wundenmal
Und ganz geneigt den Taumelkelch der Qual!
O Nacht, ich bin bereit!

O Nacht, du Garten der Vergessenheit
Um meiner Armut weltverschloss'nen Glanz,
Das Weinlaub welkt, es welkt der Dornenkranz.
O komm, du hohe Zeit!

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by Georg Trakl (1887 - 1914), no title, appears in Gesang zur Nacht, no. 9 [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 Ernst Ludwig Leitner (b. 1943), "O Nacht", 1978, first performed 1979 [low voice, flute, and harp], from Gesang zur Nacht. 12 Gesänge nach Gedichten von Georg Trakl, no. 9, self published: Edition 43 [
text not verified
]

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

FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2010-10-29
Line count: 8
Word count: 48

O night, you wordless gate into my harm

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

O night, you wordless gate into my harm, 
see bleeding out this stigma dark 
and see the cup of trembling at a tilt! 
Ready am I, o night! 

O night, you garden of forgottenness
round my need’s shine, secreted from the world,
the vine leaves wilt, the crown of thorns, it wilts. 
O come, you solemn time!

About the headline (FAQ)

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), no title, appears in Gesang zur Nacht, no. 9
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2016-10-26
Line count: 8
Word count: 57