Pathways to death | Your hands over my head

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by Anna (Nuhn) Ritter (1865 - 1921)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Todeswege

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

Über meinem Haupte deine Hände,
Deine Liebe über meinen Wegen --
Und doch führen sie der Nacht entgegen,
Und ein Grab ist unsres Wanderns Ende!

Laß uns, Liebster, in die Sonne schauen,
Goldnes Licht und Lust und Freiheit trinken
Und dann selgen Augs hinüber winken
Zu den stillen, sonnenlosen Auen.

Daß, wenn wir vom Lichte scheiden müssen,
Noch ein Traum die lange Nacht durchglühe,
Und Erinnerung das Grab umblühe
Mit dem Rosenflor von deinen Küssen.

Confirmed with Anna Ritter, Befreiung. Neue Gedichte, Fünfte Auflage, Stuttgart: J.G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, 1900, page 100.

Text Authorship:

by Anna (Nuhn) Ritter (1865 - 1921), "Todeswege", appears in Befreiung. Neue Gedichte, in 4. Fremdes Leben, no. 21 [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 Alexander von Fielitz (1860 - 1930), "Todeswege", op. 81 (Sechs Lieder für 1 mittlere Singstimme mit Pianoforte) no. 4, published 1904 [ medium voice and piano ], Leipzig, Breitkopf und Härtel [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "Pathways to death", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2023-10-12
Line count: 12
Word count: 74

Pathways to death

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Your hands over my head,
Your love over my pathways --
And yet they lead toward night,
And a grave is the end of our wandering!

Let us, beloved, look into the sun,
[Let us] drink golden light and joy and freedom
And then, with bliss-filled eyes, wave to
The quiet, sunless meadows yonder.

So that, when we are forced to part from the light,
A dream may yet glow through the long night,
And memory may blossom about my grave
With the rosy bloom of your kisses.

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.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Anna (Nuhn) Ritter (1865 - 1921), "Todeswege", appears in Befreiung. Neue Gedichte, in 4. Fremdes Leben, no. 21
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2024-01-07
Line count: 12
Word count: 87