Sonnet for Vienna | You city, you psalm, resounding from the mouth of God

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by Hans Kaltneker (1895 - 1919)

Translation © by Sharon Krebs

Sonett für Wien

Language: German (Deutsch)

Our translations: ENG

Du Stadt, du Psalm, aus Gottes Mund erklungen
und Stein geworden, Marmor, Park und Garten,
Gedicht und Lied der liebsten Engelzungen,
die lange deiner gold'nen Kirchen harrten,

drin alle Heil'gen, wunderlich bezwungen
von ihrer hohen Form, zu Glanz erstarrten!
Stadt der Fontänen, altem Stein entsprungen,
barocker Bauten, gnädiger Standarten,

die über hohen Prozessionen schweben!
[Die]¹ Stadt, darin der Klang vergang'ner Zeiten
noch klingt, darin das alte Gold noch leuchtet,

darin die dunkeln, frommen Bilder leben
und Gottes Auge aus den grünen Weiten 
der Berge strahlt, von Wehmut sanft befeuchtet.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• E. Korngold

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Korngold: "Du"

Text Authorship:

by Hans Kaltneker (1895 - 1919), "Sonett für Wien" [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 Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 - 1957), "Sonett für Wien", op. 41 (1953). [mezzo-soprano and piano] [ sung text verified 1 time]

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

ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , "Sonnet for Vienna", 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: 14
Word count: 90

Sonnet for Vienna

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

You city, you psalm, resounding from the mouth of God
and having become stone, marble, parks and gardens,
poem and song of the loveliest of angel tongues,
which long awaited your golden churches,

within which all Saints, wondrously subjugated
out of their exalted forms, frozen [in stone] to shining glory!
City of fountains, emanating from ancient stones,
[city of] baroque buildings, [of] gracious guidons

that wave above the lofty processions!
[The]¹ city in which the resonance of past times
may still be heard, in which the ancient gold yet gleams,

wherein the dark, pious paintings live
and the eye of God, softly bedewed with melancholy,
shines radiantly from the green expanses of the hills.

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Korngold: "You"

Text Authorship:

Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2011 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 Hans Kaltneker (1895 - 1919), "Sonett für Wien"
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2012-01-12
Line count: 14
Word count: 115