Too late! | It began to grow green, it began to blossom already

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by Friedrich Heinrich Oser (1820 - 1891)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Zu spat!

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

Zu grünen begann's, zu blühen schon, 
Ach wehe! da floh die Sonne davon! 
Und düster und traurig harrten im Thal 
Die Bäume, die Matten allzumal.

Und kommt er wieder, der Sonnenschein, 
Zu spät ist's, zu spät nach all der Pein, 
Zu spät, wie mild er noch lächeln mag: --
Versäumt ist der rechte Frühlingstag!

Confirmed with Liederbuch von Friedrich Oser, 1842-1874. Mit einem biographischen Verzeichnis der Componisten, Basel: Benno Schwabe, Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1875, page 25.

Text Authorship:

by Friedrich Heinrich Oser (1820 - 1891), "Zu spät!", appears in Liederbuch, in 1. Naturlieder, no. 25 [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 Carl Machts (1846 - 1903), "Zu spat!", published 1882 [ voice and piano ], from Fünf Lieder für eine Singstimme mit Pianoforte, no. 4, Hannover: L. Oertel [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "Too late!", copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2025-03-17
Line count: 8
Word count: 53

Too late!

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

It began to grow green, [it began] to blossom already,
Ah woe! then the sun fled!
And dark and sad in the valley
The trees, the meadows all abided.

And when it returns, the sunshine,
It shall be too late, too late after all that pain,
Too late, however gently it may yet smile: --
The real spring day has been lost!

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2025 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 Friedrich Heinrich Oser (1820 - 1891), "Zu spät!", appears in Liederbuch, in 1. Naturlieder, no. 25
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-03-17
Line count: 8
Word count: 61