LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,119)
  • 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 Victor August Eberhard Blüthgen (1844 - 1920)
Translation © by Emily Ezust

Es war ein niedlich Zeiselein
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE
[Es]1 war ein niedlich Zeiselein,
Das träumte nachts im Mondenschein:
Es säh' am Himmel Stern [bei]2 Stern,
Davon [wär']3 jeder ein Hirsekern,
Und als es geflogen [himmelauf]4,
Da pickte das Zeislein die Sterne auf.
  Piep -- 
Wie war das im [Traume]5 so lieb!

Und als die [Sonne]6 beschien den Baum,
[Erwachte]7 das Zeislein [von seinem]8 Traum.
Es [wetzte]9 [das Schnäbelchen]10 her und hin
Und [sprach]11 verwundert in seinem Sinn:
"Nun hab' [ich]12 gepickt die ganze Nacht
Und [bin]13 [doch so hungrig]14 aufgewacht!
  Ping --
Das ist [mir]15 ein [närrisches]16 Ding!"

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   L. Blech •   R. Kügele •   A. Wallnöfer •   P. Wolfrum 

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Gedichte von Victor Blüthgen, Leipzig, Verlag von Edwin Schloemp, 1880, page 211.

1 Doebber, Wolfrum: "Das"; further changes for Doebber may exist not shown above.
2 Wallnöfer: "an"
3 Kügele: "war"
4 Blech: "zum Himmel hinauf"
5 Blech: "Traum"
6 Kügele: "Sonn'"
7 Kügele: "Erwacht"
8 Kügele: "aus dem"
9 Blech: "wetzt"; Kügele: "wetzt'"
10 Kügele: "das Schnäblein", Wallnöfer: "sein Schnäbelchen"
11 Wallnöfer: "denket"
12 Wallnöfer: "es"
13 Wallnöfer: "ist"
14 Blech: "so hungrig noch"
15 Wallnöfer: "doch"
16 Blech: "närrisch"

Text Authorship:

  • by Victor August Eberhard Blüthgen (1844 - 1920), "Der Traum", appears in Gedichte, in 4. Im Kinderparadies, no. 3 [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 Leo Blech (1871 - 1958), "Der Traum", op. 24 no. 4 [ voice and piano ], from Acht Liedchen großen und kleinen Kindern vorzusingen, Dritte Folge, no. 4, Universal Edition [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Johannes Doebber (1866 - 1921), "Der Traum", op. 27 (Drei Lieder für 1 Singstimme mit Pianoforte) no. 2, published 1900 [ voice and piano ], Berlin, Wernthal [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Joseph Haas (1879 - 1960), "Der Traum", op. 7 (Sieben Lieder) no. 2 (1904/5) [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Henning Karl Adam von Koss (1855 - 1913), "Der Traum", op. 23 (Vier Lieder für 1 Singstimme mit Pianoforte) no. 4, published 1896 [ voice and piano ], Berlin, Glas [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Richard Kügele (1850 - 1926), "Zeisleins Traum" [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Anna Müller , "Der Traum", published 1889 [ voice and piano ], from Vier Kinderlieder mit leichter Pianofortebegleitung, no. 3, Frankfurt a/M., Firnberg [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Karl Guido Nakonz (1833 - 1907), "Der Traum", op. 6 no. 10, published 1885 [ voice and piano ], from Kinderlieder, Heft IV, no. 10, Leipzig, Fritzsch [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Friedrich August Naubert (1839 - 1897), "Zeisleins Traum", op. 33 (Sechs Lieder für zwei Kinderstimmen mit Pianoforte ) no. 2, published 1885 [ vocal duet for children's voices with piano ], Kassel, Voigt [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Fürchtegott Ernst August Riedel (1855 - 1929), "Der Traum", op. 19, Heft 2 no. 4, published 1890 [ mixed chorus a cappella ], from Sechs humoristische Lieder für gemischten Chor, no. 4, Leipzig, Siegel [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Margarete Schweikert (1887 - 1957), "Der Traum - Aus dem Kinderparadies in ganz kindlicher Weise seiner Mama komponiert von einem Kinde", 1906 [ voice and piano ], unpublished [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Adolf Wallnöfer (1854 - 1946), "Das Zeiselein", op. 97 (Duette für hohe und tiefe stimmen) no. 6 [ vocal duet with piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Richard Wintzer (1866 - 1952), "Der Traum" [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Victor von Woikowsky-Biedau (1866 - 1935), "Der Traum", op. 17 (Sechs Gesänge für 1 Singstimme mit Pianofortebegleitung) no. 4, published 1899 [ voice and piano ], Berlin, Siegel [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Philip Wolfrum (1854 - 1919), "Der Traum", op. 15 (Lieder und Gesänge für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte, 3. Heft) no. 5 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Alexander Zemlinsky (1871 - 1942), "Der Traum", op. 2 (Dreizehn Lieder für eine Singstimme und Klavier), Heft 2 no. 3 (1894-6), published 1897 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , no title, copyright ©
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Johann Winkler

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 105

There was a sweet little greenfinch
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
There was a sweet little greenfinch
that dreamed all night in the moonlight:
It saw in the sky star upon star,
and every one was a millet seed.
And when it flew up into the sky,
the greenfinch pecked at the stars.
Peep -
how lovely it was in the dream!

And when the sun warmed the tree,
the little greenfinch awoke from its dream.
It opened and closed its beak
and said with astonishment to itself:
"I've been pecking the whole night
and yet I've woken up so hungry!
Ping -
That seems such a stupid thing to me!"

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of titles
"Das Zeiselein" = "The little greenfinch"
"Der Traum" = "The Dream"
"Der Traum - Aus dem Kinderparadies in ganz kindlicher Weise seiner Mama komponiert von einem Kinde" = "The dream - from the children's paradise, composed by a child in a very childlike way for his mother"
"Zeisleins Traum" = "The dream of the little greenfinch"


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 Victor August Eberhard Blüthgen (1844 - 1920), "Der Traum", appears in Gedichte, in 4. Im Kinderparadies, no. 3
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 98

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