LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,109)
  • Text Authors (19,485)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

×

Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

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.

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

If you wish to reprint translations, please make sure you include the names of the translators in your email. They are below each translation.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

by Eduard von Bauernfeld (1802 - 1890)
Translation © by Laura Prichard

Nachtigall
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  ENG
Der Liebe Schmerzen weinen durch die Nacht,
Wenn Ruhe waltet und Selene wacht,
Die leisen Laute, die der Brust entflieh'n ,
Sie zieh'n verstanden durch die stillen Lüfte hin.

Da horch! Ertönt der Ruf der Nachtigall:
Zum Schlag verstärket sich der schwache Schall,
Er steigt, er fällt, er hebt sich und zerfliesst
Bis er, erneuet, sich in einem Ton ergiesst.

Ein Ton, gemischt aus Schmerz und Lust,
Zu mächtig fast für seines Sängers Brust;
Die Kehle, die ihn singt versteht ihn nicht:
Ihn fühlt die Menschenbrust der er gebricht!

D'rum Nachtigall der Liebe Vogel ist:
Der Liebe, der des Schmerzens Träne fliesst,
Wie jener, die vom sel'gen Glück berauscht,
In des Besitzers Lust dem süssem Tone lauscht.

Text Authorship:

  • by Eduard von Bauernfeld (1802 - 1890) [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 Franz Paul Lachner (1803 - 1890), "Nachtigall", op. 35 (Zwölf deutsche Gesänge), Heft 1 no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]

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

  • ENG English (Laura Prichard) , "Nightingale", copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Researcher for this page: Ferdinando Albeggiani

This text was added to the website: 2008-03-31
Line count: 16
Word count: 117

Nightingale
Language: English  after the German (Deutsch) 
Love's heartaches weep all through the night,
When peace rules and Selene [the moon] wakes,
The quiet sounds that flee from the heart,
Are drawn audibly through the silent air.

Hark! Now sounds the call of the nightingale:
Into a peal, it builds from a weak sound,
It rises, it falls, it lifts itself up and melts away
Until it refashions itself, gushing out in one great tone.

One note, mixing pain and pleasure,
Too powerful for its singer's breast;
The throat that produces it can't comprehend it:
I can only be understood by the human heart the bird lacks!

Therefore, the nightingale is "the Bird of Love":
Of love, from which pain's tears flow,
Like she, who with tranquil happiness is intoxicated,
With pleasure, listens to the sweet tone.

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from German (Deutsch) to English copyright © 2020 by Laura Prichard, (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 Eduard von Bauernfeld (1802 - 1890)
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2020-01-03
Line count: 16
Word count: 130

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

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris