LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,139)
  • Text Authors (19,552)
  • 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 Anton Simon (1760 - 1810)
Translation © by Malcolm Wren

Das Bild
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  CAT DUT ENG ENG FRE
Ein Mädchen ist's, das früh und spät
Mir vor der Seele schwebet,
Ein Mädchen, wie es steht und geht,
Aus Himmelsreiz gewebet.
Ich seh's, wenn in mein Fenster mild
Der junge Morgen blinket;
Ich seh's, wenn, lieblich wie das Bild,
Der Abendstern mir winket.

Mir folgt's, ein treuer Weggenoß
Zur Ruh' und ins Getümmel:
Ich fänd' es in der Erde Schooß;
Ich fänd' es selbst im Himmel.
Es schwebt vor mir in Feld und Wald,
Prangt über'm Blumenbeete,
Und glänzt in Seraphimsgestalt
Am Altar, wo ich bete.

Ergötzt mein Aug', o Himmel, sich
So oft an deiner Bläue;
So ist's, weil ich der Gleichheit mich
Mit ihrem Auge freue.
Auch du, o Ros', erhieltest nicht,
Daß ich so gern dich pflückte,
Wenn nicht der Huldinn Angesicht
Ein gleicher Purpur schmückte.

Ich horch' auf ihre Stimme nur
Beym Lied der Nachtigallen;
Seh' im Gewühl der Aehrenflur
Nur ihrer Locken Wallen;
Empfind' im Hauch der Morgenluft
Die Ruh' nur, die sie lächelt,
Und in der Nelke Balsamduft,
Wie süß ihr Odem fächelt.

Wenn ich auf jungbegraster Hut
Die frommen Lämmchen zähle:
Nicht minder, denk' ich, sanft und gut
Ist auch des Mädchens Seele!
Und seh' ich Täubchen, zwey und zwey,
Der Liebe froh genießen;
Ach! seufzt mein Herz, gleich warm und treu
Würd' ihre Lippe küßen.

Dann fühl' ich, daß von süßem Schmerz,
Ich durch und durch erwarme:
Mich dünkt, ich drücke sie an's Herz
Und halte sie im Arme!
Laut sagen mir dann Frost und Glut,
Die schauernd mich durchzücken,
Laut sagt mir jeder Tropfe Blut:
Dich kann nur Sie beglücken!

Allein das Bild, das spät und früh
Mir vor der Seele schwebet,
Ist's nur Geschöpf der Phantasie,
Aus Luft und Traum gewebet?
O nein! so warm auch Liebe mir 
Das Engelbildniß mahlet;
Ist's doch nur Schatten von der Zier,
Die an dem Urbild strahlet.

An einem nur, an Fühlbarkeit,
Wird dieses übertroffen:
Wenn jenes Herz und Hand mir weiht,
Läßt kaum das Urbild - hoffen!
O Mädchen, lerne von dem Bild
Den süßesten der Triebe:
Sey wie dein Bildniß hold und mild,
Und lächle, lächle - Liebe!

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   F. Schubert 

F. Schubert sets stanzas 1, 2, 7

View text with all available footnotes

Confirmed with Erstlinge unserer einsamen Stunden von einer Gesellschaft, Zweytes Bändchen. Prag, gedruckt bey Johann Diesbach, 1792, pages 141-143. The author of the poem is abbreviated "S**".


Text Authorship:

  • by Anton Simon (1760 - 1810), "Das Bild", subtitle: "An Idalien", first published 1792 [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 Franz Peter Schubert (1797 - 1828), "Das Bild", op. posth. 165 (Fünf Lieder) no. 3, D 155 (1815), published 1852, stanzas 1,2,7 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "La imatge", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , "Het beeld", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "The picture", copyright ©
  • ENG English (Malcolm Wren) , "The image", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Le portrait", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Peter Rastl [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 64
Word count: 346

The image
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
It is a girl, who, early and late,
Hovers before my soul,
A girl, as if she could stand up and walk,
Woven out of the allure of heaven.
I see her when, gently through my window
The young morning flahes in,
I see her, when lovingly, like the image,
The evening star signals to me.

She follows me, a true companion on the way,
When it is calm and when it is crowded,
I would find her in the Earth's womb,
I would even find her in heaven.
She hovers before me in the fields and forests,
Resplendent over the flower beds,
And she glows in the form of one of the Seraphim
At the altar where I pray.

Oh heaven, if my eyes have taken delight
So often in your blue,
It is because of the similarity that allows me
To enjoy it with her eyes.
You too, oh rose, would not allow me
To pluck you so willingly
If it were not that the beauteous one's face were
Adorned with a similar crimson.

I can hear her voice even
In the song of the nightingale;
In the swaying movement of the standing corn I see
Only the waves of her hair;
In the breath of the morning air I experience
Only the peace which emerges from her smile,
And in the scent of the carnation
Her own odour is so sweetly infused.

When I am out in the field with newly grown grass
Counting the meek little lambs,
I think that she is no less pure and good,
Yes, the girl's soul is the same!
And when I see doves, two by two,
Enjoying love happily,
Oh, my heart sighs. In just such a warm and devoted way
I would like to kiss her lips.

Then I begin to feel the working of a sweet pain
That warms me through and through:
It appears to me that I am pressing her to my heart
And holding her in my arms!
Frost and fire then speak aloud to me
As they shudder and work their way through me,
Every drop of blood speaks aloud to me:
Only she can give you happiness!

Yet the image which, early and late,
Hovers before my soul,
Is it just a figment of my imagination
Woven from air and dreams?
Oh no, however warmly love works for me
By painting the angelic vision,
It is in fact merely a shadow of the brightness
Beaming around that original image.

Only one thing, sensitivity,
Can surpass this:
If this heart and hand are offered to me
That barely leaves the original image - hope!
O girl, learn from the image
The sweetest of urges:
Be beauteous and gentle like your image
And smile, smile  - love!

View text with all available footnotes

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2017 by Malcolm Wren, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Anton Simon (1760 - 1810), "Das Bild", subtitle: "An Idalien", first published 1792
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2017-07-09
Line count: 64
Word count: 462

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