I was with her | I was with her; she said to me

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 Aleksey Vasil'yevich Kol'tsov (1808 - 1842)

Translation © by Anton Bespalov, Rianne Stam

Я был у ней; она сказала

Language: Russian (Русский)

Our translations: ENG

Я был у ней; она сказала:
«Люблю тебя, мой милый друг!»
Но эту тайну от подруг
Хранить мне строго завещала.

Я был у ней; на прелесть злата
Клялась меня не променять;
Ко мне лишь страстию пылать,
Меня любить, любить, как брата.

[Я был у ней; я с уст прелестной
Счастливое забвенье пил
И всё земное позабыл
У девичьей груди прелестной.]¹

Я был у ней; я вечно буду
С её душой душою жить;
Пускай она мне изменит —
Но я изменником не буду.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• A. Dyubyuk • S. Rachmaninov

S. Rachmaninov sets stanzas 1-2, 4

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with А. В. Кольцов, Полное собрание стихотворений, Ленинград, Советский писатель, 1958.

¹ Dyubyuk:

Я был у ней, и муки страсти
У ног ее я позабыл.
И, как дитя, покорен был
Ее волшебно сладкой власти!

Show a transliteration: Default | DIN | GOST

Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

by Aleksey Vasil'yevich Kol'tsov (1808 - 1842), no title, written 1829 [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 Nikolay Grigorevich Derviz (1837 - 1880), "Я был у ней", 1863 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Aleksandr Ivanovich Dyubyuk (1812 - 1897), "Я был у ней" [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Aleksandr Borisovich Matyukhin (b. 1947), "Я был у ней" [sung text not yet checked]
by Sergei Vasil'yevich Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943), "Я был у ней", op. 14 (Двенадцать романсов = Dvenadcat' romansov (Twelve songs)) no. 4 (1896), stanzas 1-2,4 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Nikolay Petrovich Trubetskoy (1828 - 1900), "Я был у ней", 1860 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

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

ENG English (Anton Bespalov) (Rianne Stam) , "I was with her", copyright ©, (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: 16
Word count: 83

I was with her

Language: English after the Russian (Русский)

I was with her; she said to me:
"I love you, my dearest friend!"
But she strictly implored me to keep
this secret from her girlfriend.

I was with her, not for golden riches
she swore to trade me;
only to me to be afire with passion,
to love me, love me like a brother.

[...
...
...
...]

I was with her; I will always
live with her soul, her soul.
Let her betray me,
but I will be no traitor.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Russian (Русский) to English copyright © by Anton Bespalov and Rianne Stam, (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 Russian (Русский) by Aleksey Vasil'yevich Kol'tsov (1808 - 1842), no title, written 1829
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 78