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To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

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by Friedrich von Schiller (1759 - 1805)
Translation © by Daniel Platt

Berglied
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  CHI ENG FRE
Am Abgrund leitet der schwindliche Steg,
Er führt zwischen Leben und Sterben,
Es sperren die Riesen den einsamen Weg,
Und drohen dir ewig Verderben,
Und willst du die schlafende Löwinn nicht wecken,
So wandle still durch die Straße der Schrecken.

Es schwebt eine Brücke hoch über den Rand
Der fürchtbaren Tiefe gebogen,
Sie ward nicht erbauet von Menschenhand,
Es hätte sichs keiner verwogen;
Der Strom braust unter ihr spat und früh,
Speit ewig hinauf, und zertrümmert sie nie.

Es öffnet sich schwarz ein schauriges Tor,
Du glaubst dich im Reiche der Schatten,
Da tut sich ein lachend Gelände hervor,
Wo der Herbst und der Frühling sich gatten,
Aus des Lebens Mühen und ewiger Quaal 
Möcht' ich fliehen in dieses glückseelige Tal!

Vier Ströme brausen hinab in das Feld,
Ihr Quell der ist ewig verborgen,
Sie fliessen nach allen vier Straßen der Welt,
Nach Abend und Mittag und Morgen,
Und wie die Mutter sie rauschend gebohren,
Fort fliehn sie, und bleiben sich ewig verlohren.

Zwei Zinken ragen in's Blau der Luft
Weit über der Menschen Geschlechter,
Drauf tanzen umschleiert von goldenem Duft
Die Wolken, die himmlischen Töchter,
Sie halten dort oben den einsamen Reihn,
Da stellt sich kein Zeuge, kein Sterblicher ein.

Es sitzt die Königin hoch und klar
Auf unvergänglichem Throne,
Die Stirn umkränzt sie sich wunderbar
Mit Diamantener Krone,
Drauf schießt die Sonne die Pfeile vom Licht,
Sie vergolden sie nur und erwärmen sie nicht.

Text Authorship:

  • by Friedrich von Schiller (1759 - 1805), "Berglied" [author's text not yet checked 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 Siegfried Langgaard , "Berglied", published 1878 [ voice and piano ], from Drei Lieder für 1 Singstimme mit Pianoforte, no. 2, Weimar, Guthmann  [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752 - 1814), "Berglied" [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Karl Friedrich Zelter (1758 - 1832), "Berglied", 1804 [sung text not yet checked]

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

  • CHI Chinese (中文) [singable] (Dr Huaixing Wang) , "山歌", copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English [singable] (Daniel Platt) , "Song of the mountain", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Chant de la montagne", copyright © 2010, (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: 36
Word count: 236

Song of the mountain
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
The footbridge leads o'er the giddy crevasse,
Between life and death its transition,
Where giants are barring the desolate pass,
And threaten eternal perdition,
And lest thou the avalanche there shouldst awaken
Tread lightly the terrible path thou hast taken.

This bridge, how it hovers high over the land,
O'er the horrible chasm it transits,
It was not constructed by human hands,
There never was one who would chance it.
The torrent roars under it night and day,
Spews upward, but carries it not away.

Then there stands open a dreadful gate,
As if to the realm of the shadows,
But instead a laughing region awaits,
Spring and autumn conjoin in its meadows.
From the toils of this life and its endless travail
Would I flee into this delightful vale.

Four rushing streams to the lowlands are hurled,
We'll never know whence they're aborning,
They flow into all the four ways of the world,
Toward evening, north, mid-day, and morning,
Like the mother who gave them their noisy birth,
They flee forth to be lost in the ends of the earth.

Through the blue reaches two pinnacles rise,
So high o'er the world that we live in,
And dancing, in bright veils of mist, through the skies
Are the clouds, the daughters of heaven.
Up there they proceed in a lonely array,
With no earthly witness to view their display.

There sits a vivid, lofty queen
Upon a throne forever,
She wears upon her brow serene
A crown of diamond splendor.
An arrow of light from the sun is shot,
It gilds her indeed, but it warms her not.

Text Authorship:

  • Singable translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2010 by Daniel Platt, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., please ask the copyright-holder(s) directly.

    Daniel Platt.  Contact: abelard2 (AT) aol (DOT) com


    If the copyright-holder(s) are unreachable for three business days, please write to: licenses@email.lieder.example.net


Based on:

  • a text in German (Deutsch) by Friedrich von Schiller (1759 - 1805), "Berglied"
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2012-02-27
Line count: 36
Word count: 269

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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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