LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,114)
  • Text Authors (19,495)
  • 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 copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

See below for more information.

© by George Mackay Brown (1921 - 1996)
Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Weihnachtslied
Language: German (Deutsch)  after the English 
Schau endlich hin auf einen Stern,
auf irgendeinen Stern
im Flockenwirbelsternensturm.
Er leitet dich -
wohin auch immer -
zum Ende, Ursprung und zur Liebe.

Gebrochen ist sie nun, die Taube,
geknickt, sternengeformt.
Schwarz geht der Regen nieder,
noch steigt die bitt’re Flut.
Wes’ ist die Hand,
die aus der Taube Schnabel nimmt den Zweig?

Unstete Wand’rer - stehen wir zu dritt am letzten Tor.
Und dräuend über uns 
verweilt die schwarze Faust, ein Stern, auf dorrem Holz.

Note: this translates the words of the First King ("Fix on one star, at last, etc."), the Priest ("Folded it is now, the dove"), and the Third King ("We stand, three vagrants, etc.").


Text Authorship:

  • by Bertram Kottmann , "Weihnachtslied", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in English by George Mackay Brown (1921 - 1996), "Stars: A Christmas Patchwork", appears in Voyages, first published 1983, copyright © 2005
    • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Weihnachtslied", 2015 [medium voice and piano] [ sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Bertram Kottmann

This text was added to the website: 2016-12-27
Line count: 15
Word count: 75

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