Category Archives: Lieder


Eichendorff: Night is like a quiet sea

Josef Karl Benedikt von Eichendorff (1788-1857)

by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847) “Nacht ist wie ein stilles Meer”, 1846 Hugo Wolf (1860-1903), “Die Nacht”, Eichendorff Lieder, no. 19.Translation © Emily Ezust, Lied & Art Song Texts Page.

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Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel

Nacht ist wie ein stilles Meer

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Night is like a quiet sea:
joy and sorrow and the laments of love
become tangled up
in the gentle throbbing of the waves.
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Desires are like clouds
that sail through the quiet space:
who can recognize in the mild wind
whether they are thoughts or dreams?
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Even if my heart and mouth now are closed,
that once so easily lamented to the stars,
still, at the bottom of my heart
there remains the gentle throbbing of those waves.
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Moonrise by the Sea
Caspar David FRIEDRICH
c. 1822