by
Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848)
Often rebuked, yet always back returning
Language: English
Often rebuked, yet always back returning
To those first feelings that were born with me
And leaving busy chase of wealth and learning
For idle dreams of things which cannot be
Today I will seek not the shadowy region
Its unsustaining vastness waxes drear
And visions rising, legion after legion
Bring the unreal world too strangely near
I'll walk, but not in old heroic traces
And not in paths of "high morality"
And not among the half distinguished faces
The clouded forms of long past history
I'll walk where my own nature would be leading
It vexes me to choose another guide
Where the grey flocks in ferny glens are feeding
Where the wild wind blows on the mountain side
What have those lonely mountains worth revealing?
More glory and more grief then I can tell
The earth that wakes one human heart to feeling
Can centre both the worlds of Heaven and Hell
About the headline (FAQ)
Note: in the Fisk work, this is sung by Lockwood
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Terry Fisk , "Often rebuked, yet always back returning
", published 2002 [voice, piano], from Wuthering Heights, no. 50. [
text verified 1 time
]
- by Joan Littlejohn (b. 1937), "Stanzas", 1967-71, first performed 1972 [mezzo-soprano and piano], from The Heights of Haworth [
text not verified
]
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , title 1: "Strophen", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Terry Fisk
This text was added to the website: 2004-03-22
Line count: 20
Word count: 154
Strophen
Language: German (Deutsch)  after the English
Getadelt oft, doch immer heimwärts kehrend
zu den Gefühlen, die mit mir gebor'n,
nicht Reichtum, nicht Gelehrtheit jagend, während
ich müßig Dinge träume, die verlor'n.
Heut' such ich nicht nach Schattenregionen,
die weiter wachsen, halt- und hoffnungslos;
wo Visionen über Visionen
ersteh'n in Traumeswelten fremd und bloß.
Ich werde schreiten, doch nicht Heldenfährten
und nicht diePfade höherer Moral,
und nicht mit den Gesichtern, halb-geehrten
durch der Geschichte längst verstaubtem Saal.
Ich geh' und laß Natur den Weg mir zeigen:
Ich möchte keinen andern, der mich führt:
Wo graue Herden Futter sich ersteigen,
wo wild den Wind man von den Bergen spürt.
Was kann der Berge Einsamkeit enthüllen?
Mehr Freud, mehr Leid als all die Worte mein:
die Erde, die ein Herz erweckt zum Fühlen,
schließt Himmel wie auch Hölle in sich ein.
Text Authorship:
Based on:
- a text in English by Emily Brontë (1818 - 1848), "Stanzas", from Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, first published 1850
This text was added to the website: 2008-06-01
Line count: 20
Word count: 132