by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856)
Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

Du bist wie eine Blume
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Available translation(s): CAT CHI DUT DUT ENG ENG FRE GRE GRE HUN IRI ITA POR SPA SPA SPA
  Du bist wie eine Blume
[So hold und schön und rein;]1
Ich schau' dich an, und Wehmut
Schleicht mir ins Herz hinein.

  Mir ist, als ob [ich]2 die Hände
Aufs Haupt [dir]3 legen sollt',
[Betend]4, daß [Gott dich]5 erhalte
[So rein und schön und hold.]1

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with: Heinrich Heine’s sämtliche Werke in vier Bänden, herausgegeben von Otto F. Lachmann, Erster Band, Leipzig: Druck und Verlag von Philipp Reclam jun, [1887], page 136.

1 Ander: "So schön, so rein und hold" the first time, and the original line the second time; Chadwick: "So schön, so hold, so rein"; Mayer: "So hold, so schön und rein" the first time and "So rein, so schön und hold" the second time; in many settings by various composers, this line is altered to "So rein, so schön, so hold"
2 omitted by Hinrichs
3 Hinrichs: "ich dir"
4 Dreyschock: "und beten"
5 Liszt: "dich Gott"

Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

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

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Marta Garcia Cadena) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • CHI Chinese (中文) (Ting Chung Wang) , "你像朵鮮花", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Wijtse Rodenburg) , "Jij bent als een bloem", copyright © 2003, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , "Jij bent mij als een bloemkelk", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Cornelis Petrus Tiele) , "Gelijk een bloeme"
  • ENG English (Emma Lazarus) , appears in Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine, first published 1881
  • ENG English (Bertram Kottmann) , "Thou art, as is a flower", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English [singable] (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist) , "A Flow'ret thou resemblest"
  • ENG English [singable] (Charles Fonteyn Manney) , "Thou art lovely as a flower", first published 1911
  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "You are like a flower", copyright © 2012
  • FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Valter Juva) , "Kuin kukka olet kaino"
  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GRE Greek (Ελληνικά) [singable] (Christakis Poumbouris) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GRE Greek (Ελληνικά) [singable] (Christakis Poumbouris) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (Tamás Rédey) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ITA Italian (Italiano) (Amelia Maria Imbarrato) , "Tu sei come un fiore", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • POL Polish (Polski) (Aleksander Kraushar) , "Ty jesteś luba", Warsaw, first published 1880
  • POL Polish (Polski) (Stanisław Budziński) , "Ty jesteś jakoby kwiecie...", first published 1886
  • POL Polish (Polski) (Władysław Bełza) , "Jesteś jak kwiatek wiośniany..."
  • POR Portuguese (Português) (Margarida Moreno) , "És como uma flor", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (Eduardo Borja Illescas) , "Eres como una flor", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (Gerardo Garciacano Hinojosa) (Simone von Büren) , "Eres como una flor", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (Elisa Rapado) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 46

Thou art, as is a flower
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
Thou art, as is a flower,
so meek and pure and fine,
I look at thee and sadness
steals o'er the heart of mine.

I feel that both my hands softly
thy hair, thy head should seek,
praying that God may preserve thee
so pure and fine and meek.

Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2009 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.

    Bertram Kottmann.  Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de

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Based on:

 

This text was added to the website: 2009-08-10
Line count: 8
Word count: 49