O dear soul, the only one true | O dear soul, the only one true

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by Gustav Pfleger-Moravský (1833 - 1875)

Translation © by Patrick John Corness

Ó, duše drahá, jedinká

Language: Czech (Čeština)

Our translations: ENG ENG

Ó, duše drahá, jedinká,
Jež v srdci žiješ dosuď:
Má oblétá Tě [vzpomínka]¹,
Ač dělí nás zlý osud.

Ó kéž jsem zpěvnou labutí,
Já zaletěl bych k Tobě:
A v posledním bych vzdechnutí
Ti vypěl srdce v mdlobě.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• A. Dvořák • A. Dvořák

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Cypřiše. Sbírka básní lyrických a epických od Gustava Pflegera (Moravského), V Praze (Prague) : Nákladem knihkupectvi: I. L. Kober, 1862, page 58. Note: in stanza 1, line 4, words 1-3, the Bärenreiter edition of Dvořák's setting (2013) follows the original ("Ač dělí nás") but the website antonin-dvorak.cz shows "Ač nás dělí". In addition, both use the spelling "dosud" instead of "dosuď" (stanza 1, line 2, word 5).

¹ Dvořák: "myšlenka"

Text Authorship:

by Gustav Pfleger-Moravský (1833 - 1875), no title, appears in Cypřiše. Sbírka básní lyrických a epických, in 1. Dozvuky lyrické, in 2. Písně, 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 Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904), "Ó, duše drahá, jedinká", B. 11 no. 4 (1865) [ voice and piano ], from Cypřiše, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904), "Ó, duše drahá, jedinká", op. 83 no. 8, from Písně milostné, no. 8 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Patrick John Corness

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 38

O dear soul, the only one true

Language: English after the Czech (Čeština)

O dear soul, the only one true,
that still dwells within my heart;
my thoughts still hover around you,
though evil fate keeps us apart.

O, if I were a singing swan,
over to you would I fly,
singing my heart out as I swoon,
as I’m breathing my last sigh.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Czech (Čeština) to English copyright © 2023 by Patrick John Corness, (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 Czech (Čeština) by Gustav Pfleger-Moravský (1833 - 1875), no title, appears in Cypřiše. Sbírka básní lyrických a epických, in 1. Dozvuky lyrické, in 2. Písně, no. 4
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2023-08-17
Line count: 8
Word count: 51