Your blue eyes | Your blue eyes keep so still

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by Klaus Groth (1819 - 1899)

Translation © by Emily Ezust

Dein blaues Auge hält so still

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: CAT DUT ENG FRE ITA

Dein blaues Auge hält so still,
Ich blicke bis zum Grund.
Du fragst mich, was ich sehen will? 
Ich sehe mich gesund. 

Es brannte mich ein glühend Paar,
Noch schmerzt das Nachgefühl;
Das deine ist wie See so klar
Und wie ein See so kühl.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Klaus Groth's Gesammelte Werke. Vierter Band. Plattdeutsche Erzählungen - Hochdeutsche Gedichte, Kiel und Leipzig, Verlag von Lipsius & Tischer, 1893, page 176.

Text Authorship:

by Klaus Groth (1819 - 1899), no title, appears in Hundert Blätter, Paralipomena zum Quickborn, in Erstes Fünfzig, in Klänge, no. 11, first published 1854 [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 Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897), "Dein blaues Auge", op. 59 (Acht Lieder und Gesänge) no. 8 (1873), published 1880 [ low voice and piano ], Leipzig, Rieter-Biedermann [sung text checked 1 time]
by Kurt Erickson , "Dein blaues Auge hält so still", first performed 2014 [ soprano and piano ], from Ich und Du , no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Louis Samson , "Dein blaues Auge hält so still", published 1873 [ voice and piano ], from Lieder und Gesänge für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte. II. Reihe, Heft IV, no. 3, Dresden, Arnold [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Johan Harald Molander (1858 - 1900) ; composed by Emil Sjögren.

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

CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , "Jouw blauwe ogen", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "Your blue eyes", copyright ©
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Tes yeux bleus", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "I tuoi occhi azzurri", copyright © 2012, (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: 8
Word count: 45

Your blue eyes

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

Your blue eyes keep so still
That I can gaze upon their very depths.
You ask me what I want to see? --
I see my own well-being.

A glowing pair burned me once;
The after-effect still hurts.
Yet your eyes are like the sea so clear,
And like a lake, so cool [and detached].

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 Klaus Groth (1819 - 1899), no title, appears in Hundert Blätter, Paralipomena zum Quickborn, in Erstes Fünfzig, in Klänge, no. 11, first published 1854
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 54