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Wie hab ich das gefühlt, was Abschied heißt. Wie weiß ichs noch : ein dunkles unverwundnes grausames Etwas, das ein Schönverbundnes noch einmal zeigt und hinhält und zerreißt. Wie war ich ohne Wehr, dem zuzuschauen, das, da es mich, mich rufend, gehen ließ, zurückblieb, so als wärens alle Frauen und dennoch klein und weiß und nichts als dies : Ein Winken, schon nicht mehr auf mich bezogen, ein leise Weiterwinkendes -, schon kaum erklärbar mehr: vielleicht ein Pflaumenbaum von dem ein Kuckuck hastig abgeflogen.
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Rainer Maria Rilke, Neue Gedichte, Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, 1922, page 55.
Text Authorship:
- by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "Abschied", written 1907, appears in Neue Gedichte [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 Thomas Bloch-Bonhoff (b. 1971), "Abschied" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gerd Boder (1933 - 1992), "Abschied" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Robert Edler (1912 - 1986), "Abschied", from Vier Melodramen, no. 3, Edition Tonos [sung text not yet checked]
- by Otto Jochum (1898 - 1969), "Abschied" [ speaker ], from Stufen der Einsamkeit, no. 9 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ernst-Lothar von Knorr (1896 - 1973), "Abschied", 1919-1940 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist (1920 - 2000), "Wie hab ich das gefühlt", 1984/1989 [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from Siebenmal Rilke, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Felix Ming (1900 - 1980), "Abschied", 1946, published 2006 [ voice and piano ], from Sieben Lieder nach Texten von Rainer Maria Rilke, no. 4, Niedernhausen : Edition Kemel [sung text not yet checked]
- by Werner August Morgenthaler (1896 - 1964), "Wie hab ich das gefühlt was Abschied heisst" [ voice and piano ], from 7 Lieder nach Gedichten von Rainer Maria Rilke, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Fritz Franz Schieri (1922 - 2009), "Abschied" [ voice and piano ], from Rilke-Lieder, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Triphon Dimitrov Silyanovski (1923 - 2005), "Abschied", 1953 [ soprano and piano ], from 5 песни за сопран и пиано (лява ръка), по стихове на Райнер Мария Рилке = Five Songs for Soprano and Piano (Left Hand) on Poetry by R.M. Rilke, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Denise Tolkowsky (1918 - 1991), "Abschied", op. 20 no. 2 (1944) [ voice and piano ], from 3 Rainer Maria Rilke liederen, no. 2, Gent [sung text not yet checked]
- by Yury Semyonovich Vaikhansky (1958 - 2019), "Abschied" [ voice and guitar ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Konstantin Wladigeroff (b. 1978) and by Alexander Wladigeroff (b. 1978), "Der Abschied", 2020 [ soprano and chamber orchestra ], from Magie; Hommage an Rainer Maria Rilke, no. 6, note: this is an arrangement of a song by Tryphon Silyanovsky [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Vera Sergeyevna Strakhova (1944 - 2018) ; composed by Yury Semyonovich Vaikhansky.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2023-08-22
Line count: 12
Word count: 82
How I felt it, that which is called farewell. How I still recall: a dark, horrible something That cannot be conquered, that shows something beautifully devoted once more and tantalizes [us with it] and tears it to pieces. How I was defenseless to watch that which, as it called to me, let me go -- remained behind, as if it were all women and nevertheless small and white and nothing but this: A waving [of farewell] that already no longer applied to me, a something that quietly continued to wave - , already hardly definable anymore: perhaps a plum tree from which a cuckoo had hastily taken flight.
About the headline (FAQ)
Translations of titles:
"Abschied" = "Farewell"
"Der Abschied" = "The farewell"
"Wie hab ich das gefühlt" = "How I felt it"
"Wie hab ich das gefühlt was Abschied heisst" = "How I felt it, that which is called farewell"
Text Authorship:
- Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2024 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.
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Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "Abschied", written 1907, appears in Neue Gedichte
This text was added to the website: 2024-10-16
Line count: 12
Word count: 106