Der Wind zieht seine Hosen an,
Die [weißen]1 Wasserhosen!
Er peitscht die Wellen, so stark er kann,
Die heulen und brausen und tosen.

Aus dunkler Höh, mit wilder Macht,
Die Regengüsse träufen;
Es ist, als wollt die alte Nacht
Das alte Meer ersäufen.

An den Mastbaum klammert die Möwe sich
Mit [heiserem Schrillen]2 und Schreien;
Sie flattert und will gar [ängstiglich]3
Ein Unglück [prophezeien]4.

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Note: the White score has two typos in stanza 3. In line 1, "Möwe" is spelled "Möve" and in line 4, "prophezeien" is spelled "prophezeihen".

¹ Lachner: "alten"
² Lachner: "heis'rem Schrillen"; White: "heis'ren Schrill'n"
³ Lachner: "ängstlich"
⁴ Lachner: "prophezei'n"

Text Authorship:

• by Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), no title, appears in Buch der Lieder, in Die Heimkehr, no. 10 [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• by Franz Paul Lachner (1803 - 1890), "Die Wasserhosen", unpublished [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Alexander Rapoport (b. 1957), "Der Wind zieht seine Hosen an", 1988, from Lieder nach Texten von Heinrich Heine, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Johann Vesque von Püttlingen (1803 - 1883), "Der Wind zieht seine Hosen an", published 1851, from Die Heimkehr : 88 Gedichte aus H. Heine's Reisebildern, no. 10 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937), "Der Sturm", published 1888? [ voice and piano ], from New Albums of Songs with German and English Words, Volume 1, no. 10, London: Pitt & Hatzfeld, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by Walter Thomas Heyn (b. 1953), "Seebild : zwei Gedichte aus dem Zyklus "Die Heimkehr"", op. 63 (Lebensgruß : 10 Lieder nach Texten von Heinrich Heine) no. 3, published c2003 [ low voice and guitar ]
  • View the full text. [sung text not yet checked]
    

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Blanche Fanny Wyatt-Smith (flourished 1883-1921) ; composed by Maude Valérie White.
  • Go to the text.
    

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

• ENG English (Emma Lazarus) , appears in Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine, first published 1881
• FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , "Le vent enfile son pantalon", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Johann Winkler

This text was added to the website: 2008-02-09
Line count: 12
Word count: 69

The sea is tossing, moaning
As it rises, trembles, crashes;
To madness scourged by the wind
That fiercely and restlessly lashes.

From darken'd height, with wildest might,
The rain in floods is falling;
As tho' the night would drown the sea
In agony appalling.

The gulls are gathering round the mast,
In hoarse tones shrilly crying,
Too surely trouble will follow fast,
Their hapless prophesying.