Die Stunde sei gesegnet
In Zeit und Ewigkeit,
Da du mir bist begegnet
In meiner Einsamkeit.

Ich stund im Weltgetriebe
Verlassen und verkannt,
Du aber hast voll Liebe
Den Blick mir zugewandt.

[Du hast zu mir gesprochen
So süß, so wunderbar,
Und hast den Bann gebrochen,
Dem ich verfallen war.]1

Du küßtest mir die Schmerzen
Vom kampfesmüden Haupt,
Gabst Frieden meinem Herzen,
Den mir die Welt geraubt.

Und manch geknicktes Streben
Hebt nun voll Lenzeslust
Das Haupt zu neuem Leben,
Von dem es nie gewußt.

[Laß mich dein]2 Auge küssen,
Das mir solch Heil gebracht!
Es wird mir leuchten müssen
Durch aller Zukunft Nacht.

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Confirmed with Gedichte von Georg Scherer, vierte, vermehrte Auflage, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Berlin, Wien: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1894, pages 61-62

¹ Reinicke (perhaps using an earlier version of the poem):
"Den Bann hast du gebrochen,
Dem ich verfallen war,
Da du zu mir gesprochen
So süß und wunderbar."
² The word order in the Reinicke score seems to have gotten scrambled: "Dein laß mich"

Text Authorship:

• by Georg Scherer (1824 - 1909), "Die Stunde sei gesegnet", appears in Gedichte von Georg Scherer, in 1. Erstes Buch, in Lieder [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 Karl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke (1824 - 1910), "Erfüllung", op. 81 no. 5, published 1864 [tenor and piano], from Eine Novelle in Liedern. Cyclus von 8 Gesängen, no. 5. [ sung text verified 1 time]

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

• ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2007-09-02
Line count: 24
Word count: 106

Blessed be the hour!
In time and in eternity,
[The hour] in which I met you
In my loneliness.

I stood in the bustle of the world
Forsaken and misunderstood,
But, full of love, you turned
Your gaze upon me.

[You spoke to me
So sweetly, so wondrously,
And broke the enchantment
In which I was ensnared.]1

You kissed the agonies
From my battle-weary brow,
You gave my heart the peace
Of which the world had robbed me.

And many a broken striving
Now, full of the joy of spring,
Lifts its head to a new life,
Of which it had known nothing.

Let me kiss your eyes
That brought me such salvation!
They must shine for me
Through all the night of the future.