LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,120)
  • Text Authors (19,527)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Johann Ludwig Tieck (1773 - 1853)
Translation © by Emily Ezust

War es dir, dem diese Lippen bebten
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  CAT DUT ENG FRE ITA LIT TUR
War es dir, dem diese Lippen bebten,
Dir der dargebotne süße Kuß?
Gibt ein irdisch Leben so Genuß?
Ha! wie Licht und Glanz vor meinen Augen schwebten,
Alle Sinne nach den Lippen strebten!

In den klaren Augen blickte
Sehnsucht, die mir zärtlich winkte,
Alles klang im Herzen wieder,
Meine Blicke sanken nieder,
Und die Lüfte tönten Liebeslieder!

Wie ein Sternenpaar
Glänzten die Augen, die Wangen
Wiegten das goldene Haar,
Blick und Lächeln schwangen
Flügel, und die süßen Worte gar
Weckten das tiefste Verlangen;
O Kuß, wie war dein Mund so brennend rot!
Da starb ich, fand ein Leben erst im schönsten Tod.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Johann Ludwig Tieck (1773 - 1853), no title, appears in Liebesgeschichte der schönen Magelone und des Grafen Peter von Provence, no. 8, chapter heading: "Wie Peter die schöne Magelone besuchte" [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 Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897), "War es dir, dem diese Lippen bebten", op. 33 no. 7 (1861-65), published 1865 [ voice and piano ], from Die schöne Magelone. Romanzen aus L. Tiecks Magelone, no. 7, Winterthur, Rieter-Biedermann [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Era per a tu que aquests llavis tremolaven", copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , "Was 't voor jou dat deze lippen beefden?", copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "Was it you for whom these lips trembled", copyright ©
  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Fu per te, che queste labbra", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • LIT Lithuanian (Lietuvių kalba) (Giedrius Prunskus) , "Ar tai tau žėravo šitos lūpos", copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • TUR Turkish (Türkçe) (Gül Sabar) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 102

Was it you for whom these lips trembled
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
Was it you for whom these lips trembled,
For you, that sweet, offered kiss?
Can an earthly life be so enjoyable?
Ha! how the light and radiance danced before my eyes,
All my senses aspired to those lips!

From those clear eyes shone
a yearning which tenderly beckoned me;
All echoed again in my heart
My gaze sank low
And the breezes whispered love songs.

Like a pair of stars
Gleamed your eyes, your cheeks
Cradled by golden hair;
Your gazes and smiles took
wing, and your sweet words
awoke a deep longing:
O Kiss, how burning red your mouth was!
I died, and first found life in fairest death.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © by Emily Ezust

    Emily Ezust permits her translations to be reproduced without prior permission for printed (not online) programs to free-admission concerts only, provided the following credit is given:

    Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,
    from the LiederNet Archive

    For any other purpose, please write to the e-mail address below to request permission and discuss possible fees.
    licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Johann Ludwig Tieck (1773 - 1853), no title, appears in Liebesgeschichte der schönen Magelone und des Grafen Peter von Provence, no. 8, chapter heading: "Wie Peter die schöne Magelone besuchte"
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 18
Word count: 110

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris