When I play for a dance | When I play for a dance

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by Albert Sergel (1876 - 1946)

Translation © by Alexander K. Puhrer

Spiel ich wo zum Tanze auf

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

Spiel ich wo zum Tanze auf,
lass ich meine Blicke schweifen,
wenn die Hände weich in Moll
flüsternde Accorde greifen.

Manches Dirnlein wird verzagt,
schlägt verschämt die Augen nieder,
und das junge Herzchen klopft
schneller unterm roten Mieder.

Ladet dann der Sternenglanz
nächtlich zu [verschwiegenem]¹ Kosen,
ist die schönste Dirne mein
hinter Dorn und Heckenrosen.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• Y. Kilpinen

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Sehnen und Suchen, Vierte Auflage, Rostock: C.J.E. Volckmann (Volckman & Wetter), 1905, page 64.

¹ Kilpinen: "verschwieg'nem"

Text Authorship:

by Albert Sergel (1876 - 1946), no title, appears in Sehnen und Suchen: Gedichte, in Schweifen, o Schweifen!, in Vagus Scholasticus, no. 4 [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 Yrjö Henrik Kilpinen (1892 - 1959), "Spiel ich wo zum Tanze auf", op. 77 no. 3 (1932-3), from Spielmannslieder, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Alexander K. Puhrer) , "When I play for a dance", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 56

When I play for a dance

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

 When I play for a dance
 I let my eyes roam,
 while my hands furnish 
 whispering chords in minor.
 
 Many a girl becomes shy
 and looks away ashamed,
 while her young heart beats 
 quicker under her red corset.
 
 When the stars then invite
 to nightly, hushed caresses,
 the prettiest girl is mine
 behind thorn and rose bushes.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © by Alexander K. Puhrer, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Alexander K. Puhrer. We have no current contact information for the copyright-holder.
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Albert Sergel (1876 - 1946), no title, appears in Sehnen und Suchen: Gedichte, in Schweifen, o Schweifen!, in Vagus Scholasticus, no. 4
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 58