by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856)
Translation by Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (1825 - 1893)
Es war ein alter König
Language: German (Deutsch)
Es war ein alter König, sein Herz war schwer, sein [Haupt]1 war grau; der arme alte König, er nahm eine junge Frau. Es war ein [schöner]2 Page, blond war sein [Haupt]3, leicht war sein Sinn; er trug die [seid'ne]4 Schleppe der jungen Königin. Kennst du das alte Liedchen? Es klingt so süß, es klingt so trüb! Sie mußten beide sterben, sie hatten sich viel zu lieb.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Neue Gedichte von H. Heine, Zweite Auflage, Hamburg, bei Hoffmann und Campe, 1844, page 28.
1 Diepenbrock: "Haar"2 Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Zemlinsky: "junger"
3 Wolfrum: "Haar"
4 Goldschmidt: "seidene"
Text Authorship:
- by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), no title, written 1830, appears in Neue Gedichte, in Neuer Frühling, no. 29
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "There was an old king", copyright ©
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Il était un vieux roi", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Joost van der Linden) , copyright © 2022, (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: 12
Word count: 71
Был старый король Matches base text
Language: Russian (Русский) after the German (Deutsch)
Был старый король... (Эту песню Я, други, слыхал в старину.) Седой и с остылой душою, Он взял молодую жену. Был паж с голубыми глазами, Исполнен отваги и сил; Он шелковый шлейф королевы Прекрасной и юной носил. Докончить ли старую песню? Звучит так уныло она... Друг друга они полюбили, И смерть им была суждена.
Show a transliteration: Default | DIN | GOST
Note on TransliterationsComposition:
- Set to music by Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov (1866 - 1901), "Был старый король", 1894, published 1901, from Lieder, no. 2, also set in German (Deutsch)
Text Authorship:
- by Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (1825 - 1893), no title, written 1845
Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), no title, written 1830, appears in Neue Gedichte, in Neuer Frühling, no. 29
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-04-22
Line count: 12
Word count: 53