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It is illegal to copy and distribute our copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

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by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
Translation © by Emily Ezust

Der Zauberlehrling
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE
Hat der alte Hexenmeister
Sich doch einmal wegbegeben!
Und nun sollen seine Geister
Auch nach [meinem]1 Willen leben.
Seine Wort' und Werke
Merkt' ich, und den Brauch,
Und mit Geistesstärke
Thu' ich Wunder auch.

   Walle! walle
   Manche Strecke,
   Daß, zum Zwecke,
   Wasser fließe,
   Und mit reichem vollem Schwalle
   Zu dem Bade sich ergieße.

Und nun komm, du alter Besen!
Nimm die schlechten Lumpenhüllen;
Bist schon lange Knecht gewesen;
Nun erfülle meinen Willen!
Auf zwey Beinen stehe,
Oben sey ein Kopf,
Eile nun und gehe
Mit dem Wassertopf!

   Walle! walle
   Manche Strecke, 
   Daß, zum Zwecke,
   Wasser fließe,
   Und mit reichem vollem Schwalle
   Zu dem Bade sich ergieße.
  
Seht, er läuft zum Ufer nieder;
Wahrlich! ist schon an dem Flusse,
Und mit Blitzesschnelle wieder
Ist er hier mit raschem Gusse.
Schon zum zweytenmale!
Wie das Becken schwillt!
Wie sich jede Schale
Voll mit Wasser füllt!

   Stehe! stehe!
   Denn wir haben
   Deiner Gaben
   Vollgemessen! --
   Ach! ich merk' es! Wehe! wehe!
   Hab' ich doch das Wort vergessen!

Ach das Wort, worauf am Ende
Er das wird, was er gewesen.
Ach! er läuft und bringt behende!
Wärst du doch der alte Besen!
Immer neue Güsse
Bringt er schnell herein.
Ach! und hundert Flüsse
Stürzen auf mich ein.

   Nein, nicht länger
   Kann ich's lassen,
   Will ihn fassen.
   Das ist Tücke!
   Ach! nun wird mir immer bänger!
   Welche Miene! welche Blicke!

O, du Ausgeburt der Hölle!
Soll das ganze Haus ersaufen?
Seh' ich über jede Schwelle
Doch schon Wasserströme laufen,
Ein verruchter Besen
Der nicht hören will.
Stock, der du gewesen,
Steh doch wieder still!

   Willst's am Ende
   Gar nicht lassen?
   Will dich fassen,
   Will dich halten,
   Und das alte Holz behende
   Mit dem scharfen Beile spalten.

[Seht, da kommt er schleppend wieder!]2
Wie ich mich nun auf dich werfe,
Gleich, o Kobold, liegst du nieder;
Krachend trifft die glatte Schärfe.
Wahrlich! brav getroffen!
Seht, er ist entzwei!
Und nun kann ich hoffen,
Und ich athme frei!

   Wehe! Wehe!
   Beide Theile
   Stehn in Eile
   Schon als Knechte
   Völlig fertig in die Höhe!
   Helft mir, ach! ihr hohen Mächte!

Und sie laufen! Naß und nässer
Wird's im Saal und auf den Stufen.
Welch entsetzliches Gewässer!
Herr und Meister! hör mich rufen! --
Ach, da kommt der Meister!
Herr, die Noth ist groß!
Die ich rief, die Geister,
Werd' ich nun nicht los.

   "In die Ecke,
   Besen, Besen!
   Seyd's gewesen.
   Denn als Geister
   Ruft euch nur, zu seinem Zwecke,
   Erst hervor der alte Meister."

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   K. Zelter 

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Göthe's neue Schriften, Siebenter Band, Berlin, Bei Johann Friedrich Unger, 1800, pages 89-94. Note: modern German grammar would require changing "reichem vollem" to "reichem vollen" in stanzas 2 and 4, line 5. Some other modernizations: "Thu" -> "Tu", "Zwey" -> "Zwei", "Sey" -> "Sei"

1 Zelter: "seinen"
2 Zelter: "Seht! er läuft zum Ufer nieder" (from stanza 5)

Text Authorship:

  • by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), "Der Zauberlehrling" [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 Michael Gees (b. 1953), "Der Zauberlehrling", 2005 [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a concert programme booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Carl Loewe (1796 - 1869), "Der Zauberlehrling", op. 20 no. 2 (1832) [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Andreas Jakob Romberg (1767 - 1821), "Der Zauberlehrling", published [1799] [ voice and piano ], from Sechs Leder beym Claviere zu singen in Musik, no. 2, Leipzig: Bei Breitkopf und Härtel [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Karl Friedrich Zelter (1758 - 1832), "Der Zauberlehrling", 1799 [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg (1760 - 1802), "Der Zauberlehrling", published 1805, from Kleine Balladen und Lieder, Heft VII, no. 20 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "The wizard's apprentice", copyright ©
  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "L'apprenti sorcier", copyright © 2011, (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: 98
Word count: 406

The wizard's apprentice
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
The old witch-master 
has finally gone away!
And now I too shall invoke his spirits
and bring them to life by my will.
His words and work
I have noted, and the method,
and with the might of these spirits,
I shall also work wonders!

Flow! Flow
many ways,
so that to my purpose
the water will run,
and with a rich, full splash
it will all land in the tub.

Now come, old broomstick!
Take your foul rag wrapping
(you have long been our servant!)
and fulfill my wishes.
Stand on two legs,
and let there be a head on top.
Hurry now and go
with the water-pail!

Flow, flow
many ways
so that to my purpose
the water will run,
and with a rich, full splash
it will all land in the tub.

Look! he is running to the banks below,
truly! he is already at the river,
and lightning-quick he's back again
to dump the water swiftly;
and now already he's gone a second time!
Oh how the basin is filling!
Now every basin
has been filled with water!

Stand still! Stop!
For we have
of your gifts
had enough!
Oh! I've just noticed: woe, woe,
I have forgotten the magic word!

Oh, the word to use at the end,
to make him what he was...
oh! he is so agile as he runs and brings the water!
Would that you were just an old broomstick again!
More and more water
is he bringing in so rapidly.
Oh! a hundred rivers
have burst in upon me.

No! no longer
can I permit this to continue.
I will seize him,
the perfidious thing.
Oh! I'm growing more and more frightened!
What a face, what a glare!

Oh you offspring of hell!
Do you mean to drown the entire house?
I can already see across every threshold
streams of water running.
Wicked broom!
It will not listen.
Stick that you once were,
just stand still once more!

Finally, if you
will not let off,
I will grab you,
I will hold you,
and quickly split this old wood
with a sharp axe.

Look! he's coming again!
How I will set upon you now,
you gremlin! there, I've knocked you down.
Crash! goes the smooth, sharp blade.
Really a true stroke.
Look, he is cut in two:
and now I can hope
to breethe freely now.

Woe! Woe!
Both pieces
are standing up in haste,
ready-made servants
rising in stature!
Help me! oh higher powers!

And they run, and it grows wetter and wetter
in the hall and on the steps:
What an appalling flood!
Lord and Master! hear me call!
Ah! the Master is coming!
Sir, I am in a huge mess:
I have summoned spirits
that I cannot dispell.

"To the corner,
broomstick, broomstick!
Be done.
For as a spirit
you shall be called for my purpose
henceforth only by your old Master."

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.
    licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), "Der Zauberlehrling"
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 98
Word count: 485

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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