Eichendorff: “The Nun and the Knight”

By Josef Karl Benedikt von Eichendorff (1788-1857), “Die Nonne und der Ritter”, from Gedichte (Ausgabe 1841), in Romanzen.

Set by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), “Die Nonne und der Ritter”, op. 28 (Vier Duette) no. 1 (1860).Translation © Emily Ezust, Lied & Art Song Texts Page.

Die Nonne und der Ritter

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As the world goes to rest,

my yearning awakens with the stars;

I must listen in the cool

as the waves roar below!

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"I am brought here from far away by waves

that beat so mournfully against the land,

beneath the bars of your window.

Lady, do you still know this Knight?"

.

It is as if strange voices

are floating through the mild air;

once again the wind has taken them away, -

alas, my heart is so anxious!

.

"Over there lies your ruined castle

lamenting in its desolate halls;

the way the woods greeted me,

I felt as though I must die."

.

Old sounds burst forth,

sunk long since in time;

melancholy falls on me once again,

and I feel like weeping from my heart.

.

"Over the wood lightning flashes from afar,

where they are fighting over the grave of Christ;

There will I steer my ship,

and there will everything end!"

.

A ship leaves with a man upon it;

false night, you bewilder the mind!

Farewell, world! May God protect

those who wander madly in darkness!

..