by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
Translation © by Malcolm Wren

An den Mond
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Available translation(s): ENG
Füllest wieder 's liebe Thal
Still mit Nebelglanz
Lösest endlich auch einmal
Meine Seele ganz

Breitest über mein Gefild
Lindernd deinen Blick
Wie der Liebsten Auge, mild
Über mein Geschick.

Das du so beweglich kennst
Dieses Herz im Brand
Haltet ihr wie ein Gespenst
An den Fluss gebannt

Wenn in öder Winternacht
Er vom Todte schwillt
Und bey Frühlingslebens Pracht
An den Knospen quillt.

Seelig wer sich vor der Welt
Ohne Hass verschliesst
Einen Mann am Busen hält
Und mit dem geniest,

Was dem Menschen unbewusst
Oder wohl veracht
Durch das Labyrinth der Brust
Wandelt in der Nacht.

Confirmed with Goethes Briefe an Charlotte von Stein Herausgegeben von Jonas Fränkel. Kritische Gesamtausgabe Erster Band (1776-1781). Verlegt bei Eugen Diederichs Jena 1908, pages 104-105.

This is the initial version of "An den Mond", which Goethe sent to Charlotte von Stein in March 1778.


Authorship

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

    [ None yet in the database ]

Set in a modified version by Albert, Graf Amadei, Ernst Bacon, Jürg Baur, Friedrich, Freiherr von Dalberg, Leopold Damrosch, Peter Fassbaender, Zdenko Antonín Václav Fibich, Gottfried Emil Fischer, Johann Gottlieb David Gackstatter, Friedrich Gernsheim, August Harder, Moritz Hauptmann, Christian Wilhelm Heydenreich, Ferdinand von Hiller, Friedrich Heinrich Himmel, Adolf Hoffmann, Iver Holter, Gustav Jansen [not F. G. Jansen], Johanna Kinkel, Gustav Krug, Robert Ludwig, Carl Mahlberg, Arnold Mendelssohn, Paul Gerhard Natorp, Fredrik Pacius, Hans Erich Pfitzner, August Püringer, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, Andreas Jakob Romberg, Hans Michael Schletterer, Louis Schlottmann, Franz Peter Schubert, Wilhelmine Schwertzell, Karl Sigmund Freiherr von Seckendorff, Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek, Hugo Ulrich, Anton Urspruch, Georg Vierling, Justus Hermann Wetzel, Karl Friedrich Zelter.

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

  • ENG English (Malcolm Wren) , title 1: "To the moon", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Peter Rastl [Guest Editor]

Text added to the website: 2017-06-19 00:00:00
Last modified: 2017-06-19 13:05:57
Line count: 24
Word count: 98

To the moon
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
Once again you fill the beloved valley
With a quiet, misty glow,
And in the end you also manage to release 
My soul completely.

Over my realm you spread 
Your soothing glance,
Like the gentle eyes of the beloved
Watching over my fate.

The fact that you are sufficiently agile to know
This heart on fire
Stops my soul, which, like a ghost
Is unable to cross the river,

When on a bleak winter's night
It swells up with death
And at the time of the majesty of spring life
It swells the buds.

Blessed is anyone who, avoiding the world,
Locks themselves away without hatred
And holds a man to their bosom
And with him enjoys

That which, unknown to humans
Or even disdained by them,
Through the labyrinth of the breast
Paces around during the night.

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: 

Based on

 

Text added to the website: 2017-07-10 00:00:00
Last modified: 2017-07-10 11:38:06
Line count: 24
Word count: 138