Comfort | How many lived-through years

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by Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Trost

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG FRE

Wie viel gelebte Jahre
Sind hin und hatten keinen Sinn,
Nichts, das ich mir bewahre,
Nichts, des ich fröhlich bin!

Unendliche Gestalten
Hat mir der Strom heran gerollt;
Ich durfte keine halten,
Es blieb mir keine hold.

Doch ob sie mir entgleiten,
Mein Herz fühlt tief und rätselhaft
Weit über alle Zeiten
Des Lebens Leidenschaft.

Die hat nicht Sinn noch Ziele,
Weiß alles nah und alles weit
Und macht, ein Kind im Spiele,
Den Augenblick zur Ewigkeit.

Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Confirmed with Hermann Hesse, Sämtliche Werke, herausgegeben von Volker Michels, Band 10 Die Gedichte, bearbeitet von Peter Huber, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2002, pages 165-166.

Text Authorship:

by Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962), "Trost", written 1908 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Adolf Pfanner (1897 - 1987), "Trost", published 1950 [ TBarB chours a cappella ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Herbert Schweikert (b. 1927), "Trost", published 1959 [ TTBB chorus a cappella ], from Licht und Trost, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "Comfort", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Consolation", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor] , Pierre Mathé [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2013-03-04
Line count: 16
Word count: 77

Comfort

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

How many lived-through years
Are gone and had no meaning,
Nothing that I preserve for myself,
Nothing that gives me joy!

The river rolled limitless figures
Toward me;
I was not permitted to hold a single one,
Not one remained well-disposed toward me.

Yet though they slip away from me,
Deeply and mysteriously my heart
Feels the passion of life
Far across all times.

This passion has neither purport nor goals,
It knows everything near and everything far away
And, like a child at play, it turns
The moment into eternity.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2019 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 Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962), "Trost", written 1908
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2019-07-19
Line count: 16
Word count: 91