Hope | Grant that the day's work of my hands

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by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

Translation © by Emily Ezust

Hoffnung

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: CAT DUT ENG FRE ITA

Schaff', das Tagwerk meiner Hände,
Hohes Glück, daß ich's vollende!
Laß, o laß mich nicht ermatten!
Nein, es sind nicht leere Träume:
Jetzt nur Stangen, diese Bäume
Geben einst noch Frucht und Schatten.

Confirmed with Goethe's Werke, Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand, Erster Band, Stuttgart und Tübingen, in der J.G.Cotta'schen Buchhandlung, 1827, page 113; and with Goethe's Schriften, Achter Band, Leipzig, bey Georg Joachim Göschen, 1789, page 160.

Text Authorship:

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), "Hoffnung", first published 1789 [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 Emil Mattiesen (1875 - 1939), "Hoffnung", op. 5, Heft 1 no. 1, published [1920] [ voice and piano ], from Künstlerandachten, no. 1, Leipzig : Edition Peters [sung text not yet checked]
by Franz Peter Schubert (1797 - 1828), "Hoffnung", D 295 (1815/6), published 1895 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Esperança", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , "Hoop", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "Hope", copyright ©
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Espoir", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Speranza", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Peter Rastl [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 6
Word count: 33

Hope

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

 Grant that the day's work of my hands,
 lofty Fortune, I may complete!
 Grant that they will not exhaust me!
 No, these are not empty dreams:
 now but mere poles, these trees
 will one day give fruit and shade.

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © by Emily Ezust
Emily Ezust permits her translations to be reproduced without prior permission for printed (not online) programs to free-admission concerts only, provided the following credit is given:
Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,
from the LiederNet Archive
For any other purpose, please write to the e-mail address below to request permission and discuss possible fees.
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Based on:

a text in German (Deutsch) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), "Hoffnung", first published 1789
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 6
Word count: 40