Destiny | Everyone’s day splinters

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by Hanns Johst (1890 - 1978)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Schicksal

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

Es zersplittert aller Tag
Zu abertausend Sternenscherben.
Dunkelheit ist der Ertrag,
Den wir Tag um Tag erwerben.

Ob wir geizen, ob wir prassen,
Mit dem Tagwerk unsrer Hände,
Immer, wenn wir müde lassen,
Ist die bloße Nacht das Ende.

Alles Lichte ist zersplittert,
Selig, wer den Traum gewann,
Daß er Hoffnung schöpfen kann
Für den Tag, der neu verbittert . . .

Confirmed with Hanns Johst, Lieder der Sehnsucht, München: Albert Langen, 1924, page 16.

Text Authorship:

by Hanns Johst (1890 - 1978), "Schicksal" [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 Hans Erich Apostel (1901 - 1972), "Schicksal", op. 3 no. 1, published 1931 [voice and piano], Universal Edition, Wien & Leipzig, Nr. 5306 [ sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "Destiny", copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2018-09-26
Line count: 12
Word count: 62

Destiny

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Everyone’s day splinters
Into many thousand shards of stars.
Darkness is the wage
That we earn day after day.

Whether we are stingy, whether we are extravagant
With the daily toil of our hands,
Always, when wearily we cease,
The naked night is the outcome.

Everything light is shattered;
Happy he who garnered the dream,
So that he might draw hope
For the day that renders one bitter anew . . .

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2018 by Sharon Krebs, (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 Hanns Johst (1890 - 1978), "Schicksal"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2018-09-26
Line count: 12
Word count: 72