First love | Oh, when within your heart

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by Friedrich Heinrich Oser (1820 - 1891)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Erste Liebe

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

  O wenn in deinem Herzen
Die erste Lieb' erwacht,
So hold, wie früh im Merzen
Ein scheues Veilchen lacht:
  Ist süßer deine Wonne,
Ist süßer deine Qual?
Ach, nie mehr scheint die Sonne
Dir mit demselben Strahl!

  O halt im tiefsten Innern
Verwahrt dein holdes Glück,
Denn nur noch im Erinnern
Kehrt's wie im Traum zurück.
  Wohl blühen [auf]¹ im Märzen
Die Veilchen stets aufs neu,
Doch ein Mal nur im Herzen
Die erste Lieb' und Treu!

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• B. Randhartinger

View text without footnotes

Confirmed with Liederbuch von Friedrich Oser, 1842-1874. Mit einem biographischen Verzeichnis der Componisten, Basel: Benno Schwabe, Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1875, pages 223-224.

¹ Randhartinger: "auch"

Text Authorship:

by Friedrich Heinrich Oser (1820 - 1891), "Erste Liebe", appears in Liederbuch, in 2. Liebeslieder, no. 253 [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 Victor Ernst Nessler (1841 - 1890), "Erste Liebe", op. 78 (Fünf Lieder für gemischten Chor a capella) no. 2, published 1875 [ mixed chorus a cappella ], Leipzig, Stoll [sung text not yet checked]
by Benedikt Randhartinger (1802 - 1893), "Erste Liebe" [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "First love", copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Sharon Krebs [Senior Associate Editor], Johann Winkler

This text was added to the website: 2021-06-30
Line count: 16
Word count: 79

First love

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

  Oh, when within your heart
First love has awakened,
As lovely as a shy violet smiles
Early in March:
  Is your bliss sweeter,
Is your agony sweeter?
Ah, the sun shall nevermore shine
For you in the same way!

  Oh, hold in safekeeping, deep within,
Your lovely happiness,
For only in memory
Shall it return, as in a dream.
  In March, to be sure, there shall [blossom]¹
The violets ever anew,
But in your heart [there blooms] only once
The first love and faithfulness!

Available sung text translations: ← What is this?

• B. Randhartinger

View text without footnotes
¹ Randhartinger: "also bloom"

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2026 by Sharon Krebs, (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 German (Deutsch) by Friedrich Heinrich Oser (1820 - 1891), "Erste Liebe", appears in Liederbuch, in 2. Liebeslieder, no. 253
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-06-01
Line count: 16
Word count: 86