Schaff', das Tagwerk meiner Hände,
Hohes Glück, daß ich's vollende!
Laß, o laß mich nicht ermatten!
Nein, es sind nicht leere Träume:
Jetzt nur Stangen, diese Bäume
Geben einst noch Frucht und Schatten.
Confirmed with Goethe's Werke, Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand, Erster Band, Stuttgart und Tübingen, in der J.G.Cotta'schen Buchhandlung, 1827, page 113; and with Goethe's Schriften, Achter Band, Leipzig, bey Georg Joachim Göschen, 1789, page 160.
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Esperança", copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , "Hoop", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "Hope", copyright ©
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , "Espoir", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Speranza", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust
[Administrator] , Peter Rastl
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 6
Word count: 33
Fais que le travail de ce jour, de mes mains,
Ô Fortune, je puisse l'achever !
Fais que je ne sois pas épuisé !
Non, ce ne sont pas des rêves vains :
Bien que maintenant ce ne soient que des bâtons, ces arbres
Donneront un jour des fruits et de l'ombre.