You milk-young boy, why do you look at me so? (Keller, set by (Johannes Brahms)) (The LiederNet Archive: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)

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by Gottfried Keller (1819 - 1890)

Translation © by Emily Ezust

Therese

Language: German (Deutsch)

Available translation(s): DUT ENG FRE

Du milchjunger Knabe,
Wie schaust du mich an?
Was haben deine Augen
Für eine Frage getan!

Alle Ratsherrn in der Stadt
Und alle Weisen der Welt
Bleiben stumm auf die Frage,
Die deine Augen gestellt!

Eine Meermuschel liegt
Auf dem Schrank meiner Bas':
Da halte dein Ohr d'ran,
Dann hörst du etwas!

Authorship

by Gottfried Keller (1819 - 1890), "Therese", appears in Neuere Gedichte, in Von Weibern - Alte Lieder, no. 3, first published 1851 [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), "Therese", op. 86 (Sechs Lieder) no. 1 (1878). [
text verified 1 time
]

Set in a modified version by Hans Erich Pfitzner, Hans August Friedrich Zincke genannt Sommer, Hugo Wolf, Robert Fischhof, Christian Sinding, Richard Schweizer, Otto Vrieslander, Franz Philipp, Max Oberleithner.

Go to the text. [ view differences ]

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

ENG English (Emily Ezust) , title 1: "You milk-young boy, why do you look at me so?", copyright ©
FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , title 1: "Thérèse", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , title 1: "Therese", copyright © 2014, (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: 12
Word count: 52

You milk‑young boy, why do you look at me so?

Language: English after the German (Deutsch)

You milk-young boy, 
why do you look at me so?
What a question 
your eyes have asked!

All the councilmen in the town
and all the wisemen in the world
Would be struck dumb by the question
that your eyes have posed!

A seashell lies 
upon my cousin's cupboard;
Press your ear to it;
then you'll hear something!

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 -- https://www.lieder.net/
For any other purpose, please write to the e-mail address below to request permission and discuss possible fees.

Based on

a text in German (Deutsch) by Gottfried Keller (1819 - 1890), "Therese", appears in Neuere Gedichte, in Von Weibern - Alte Lieder, no. 3, first published 1851

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 58