LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,143)
  • Text Authors (19,560)
  • 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

by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)

Fremde Geige, gehst du mir nach?
Language: German (Deutsch) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE
Fremde Geige, gehst du mir nach?
In wieviel Städten schon sprach
deine einsame Nacht zu meiner?
Spielen dich hunderte? Spielt dich einer?

Giebt es in allen großen Städten
solche, die sich ohne dich
schon in den den Flüssen verloren hätten?
Und warum trifft es immer mich?

Warum bin ich immer der Nachbar derer,
die ich bange zwingen zu singen
und zu sagen: Das Leben ist schwerer
als die Schwere von allen Dingen.

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with Rainer Maria Rilke, Die Gedichte, Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1997, pages 338-339.


Text Authorship:

  • by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), "Der Nachbar", written 1902/3, appears in Das Buch der Bilder [author's text checked 2 times 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 Herbert Blendinger (b. 1936), "Du, Nachbar Gott", op. 53 no. 3 (1990), first performed 1991 [ baritone and piano ], from Vom mönchischen Leben, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Gerd Büntzly (b. 1949), "Der Nachbar" [ voice, piano ], from Songs, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Bernard Foccroulle (b. 1953), "Der Nachbar", 2010 [ soprano and orchestra ], from Am Rande der Nacht II, no. 3, Editions Pierre Neuray [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Bernard Foccroulle (b. 1953), "Der Nachbar", 2009 [ soprano and piano trio ], from Wer du auch seist, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Bernard Foccroulle (b. 1953), "Der Nachbar", 2007 [ soprano, chorus, orchestra ], from Am Rande der Nacht I, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by André Froelicher (b. 1959), "Der Nachbar", 1982 [ baritone and violin ], Manuscript [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Stanley Grill (b. 1953), "Der Nachbar", copyright © 2012 [ soprano and violin ], from The Violin Sings in a Common Language, no. 1, confirmed with an online score [sung text checked 1 time]
  • by Robert Haas (1886 - 1960), "Der Nachbar" [ voice, violin and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Gregor Konrad Heuer (1915 - 1989), "Der Nachbar", 1954, published 1954 [ voice and piano ], Ikuro Edition Roland Heuer [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Bruce Mather (b. 1939), "Der Nachbar", 1960 [ tenor and guitar ], from Cycle Rilke, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Siegfried Matthus (1934 - 2021), "Fremde Geige, gehst du mir nach...", published 1995 [ voice and orchestra ], from Wiesen von Liebe, Leben und Tod, no. 9, Breitkopf & Härtl  [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Priscilla McLean (b. 1942), "Der Nachbar", 1965, first performed 1966 [ voice and violin ], from Rainer Maria Rilke Poems, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Michael J. Schumacher , "Der Nachbar", 1982? [ bass and piano ], from Drei Lieder, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Beth Wiemann (b. 1959), "Der Nachbar", 2019, published 2020 [ baritone and piano ], from Six songs on Rilke, no. 3, New York, NY : American Composers Alliance, Inc. [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in French (Français), a translation by Maurice Betz (1898 - 1946) ; composed by Raymond Loucheur.
    • Go to the text.

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

  • ENG English (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Stéphane Goldet) (Pierre de Rosamel) , "Le voisin", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2013-04-30
Line count: 12
Word count: 72

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