May I never lose you!

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sometimes misattributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) and by Marianne von Willemer (1784 - 1860)

Translation © by Emily Ezust

Nimmer will ich dich verlieren!

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: CAT ENG FRE ITA

Nimmer will ich dich verlieren!
Liebe gibt der Liebe Kraft.
Magst du meine Jugend zieren
Mit [gewalt'ger]¹ Leidenschaft.
Ach! Wie schmeichelts meinem Triebe,
Wenn man meinen Dichter preist:
Denn das Leben ist die Liebe,
Und des Lebens Leben Geist.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• M. Wegelius • H. Wolf

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Goethes Briefwechsel mit Marianne von Willemer, ed. by Max Becker, Leipzig, Insel-Verlag, 1922, page XLIII, in a letter to Goethe, who published the poem under his own name for various reasons described in Goethe and His Publishers by Siegfried Unseld, translated by Kenneth J. Northcott, The University of Chicago Press, 1996, page 360, note 12.

¹ Wegelius, Wolf: "gewaltiger"

Text Authorship:

sometimes misattributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
by Marianne von Willemer (1784 - 1860), no title [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 Martin Wegelius (1846 - 1906), "Nimmer will ich dich verlieren", 1876 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903), "Nimmer will ich dich verlieren", 1888, published 1891 [ voice and piano ], from Goethe-Lieder, no. 48, Mainz, Schott [sung text checked 1 time]

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

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2021, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Emily Ezust) , no title, copyright ©
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2012, (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: 8
Word count: 40

May I never lose you!

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

May I never lose you!
Love gives strength to the loving.
May you adorn my youth
with immense passion.
Ah! How they caress my inner self
when they praise my poet!
For life is love,
and intellect is the life of existence.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translation of title "Nimmer will ich dich verlieren" = "May I never lose you"

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.
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Based on:

a text in German (Deutsch) misattributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) and by Marianne von Willemer (1784 - 1860), no title
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 42