Aural Allusions I | Little birds in the sunny days

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by Joseph Karl Benedikt, Freiherr von Eichendorff (1788 - 1857)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Vöglein in den sonn'gen Tagen

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: DUT ENG FRE

Vöglein in den sonn'gen Tagen,
Lüfte blau, die mich verführen!
Könnt ich bunte Flügel rühren,
Über Berg und Wald sie schlagen.

Ach! es spricht des Frühlings Schöne,
Und die [Vögel]¹ alle singen:
Sind [die Farben denn nicht]² Töne,
Und die Töne bunte Schwingen?

Vöglein, ja, ich laß das Zagen!
Winde sanft die Segel rühren,
Und ich lasse mich entführen,
Ach! wohin? mag ich nicht fragen.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• F. Hensel

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Mendelssohn-Hensel: "Vöglein"
² Mendelssohn-Hensel: "denn nicht die Farben"

Text Authorship:

by Joseph Karl Benedikt, Freiherr von Eichendorff (1788 - 1857), no title, appears in Gedichte, in 2. Sängerleben, in Anklänge, no. 1 [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 Stephan Baekers , "Anklänge I", 1979, from Fünf Eichendorff-Lieder, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Elise Breiderhoff, née Frey (1849 - 1940), "Sehnsucht", op. 1 (Fünf Lieder für 1 Singstimme mit Pianofortebegleitung) no. 5, published 1895 [ voice and piano ], Berlin, Ries & Erler [sung text not yet checked]
by Fanny Hensel (1805 - 1847), "Anklänge I", 1841 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "Aural Allusions I", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 67

Aural Allusions I

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Little birds in the sunny days,
Blue skies that seduce me!
If I could only wield colourful wings,
And beat them over mountain and forest.

Ah! The beauty of spring speaks,
And all the birds are singing:
["]Are not the colours [musical] sounds,
And the [musical] sounds colourful wings?["]

Birds, yes, I will cease my hesitating!
Winds are softly stirring the sails,
And I let myself be carried off,
Ah! Whither? I do not wish to ask.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2010 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 Joseph Karl Benedikt, Freiherr von Eichendorff (1788 - 1857), no title, appears in Gedichte, in 2. Sängerleben, in Anklänge, no. 1
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2010-03-24
Line count: 12
Word count: 77