Category Archives: Eichendorff


Eichendorff: “Sehnsucht”

Josef Karl Benedikt von Eichendorff (1788-1857)

Set by Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957), “Sehnsucht”, WoO 30 (1909). Translation © Emily Ezust, Lied & Art Song Texts Page.

Yearning

.

The stars were shining with golden light
as I stood alone by the window
and listened to the distant sound
of the posthorn in the still countryside.
My heart became inflamed in my body,
and I thought secretly to myself:
Ah, if only I could journey with them
into that magnificent summer night!
.
Two young men were walking
past on the slope of the mountain,
and I heard them singing as they walked along
in the quiet area:
of vertiginous, rocky gullies
where the woods rustle so gently;
of springs that rush out from the clefts
into the night of the woods.
 .
They sang of marble statues,
of gardens that grew wild upon stones
in dusky groves;
of palaces in the moonlight
where maidens listen by the windows
when the strum of lutes awakens them;
and of fountains murmuring sleepily
in the magnificent summer night.

 .

 

Proserpine

1874

Gabriel Rossetti

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.

.

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel

Nacht ist wie ein stilles Meer

 .
Night is like a quiet sea:
joy and sorrow and the laments of love
become tangled up
in the gentle throbbing of the waves.
 .
Desires are like clouds
that sail through the quiet space:
who can recognize in the mild wind
whether they are thoughts or dreams?
 .
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.
 .
Moonrise by the Sea
Caspar David FRIEDRICH
c. 1822

Eichendorff: Above the Garden and Across the Sky

by Josef Karl Benedikt von Eichendorff (1788-1857),

Set by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847) , “Frühling”, op. 7 no. 3., by Robert Alexander Schumann (1810-1856) , “Frühlingsnacht”, op. 39 no. 12 (1840), from Liederkreis, no. 12. Translation©Emily Ezust, Lied & Art Song Texts Page

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“Frühlingsnacht”

.

Above the garden and across the sky
I heard migrating birds passing;
that meant that spring was in the air;
below, things are already beginning to bloom.

.

I could rejoice, I could weep –
I feel as though it cannot be!
Old wonders appear again
with the moonlight.

.

And the moon and stars say it,
and in a dream the grove murmurs it,
and the nightingales sing it:
She is yours! She is yours!

 moon songmoon-songmoon-songmoon-songmoon-song

moon-song

Eichendorff: Forest Girl

“Waldmädchen”

by Josef Karl Benedikt von Eichendorff (1788-1857)
Set by Robert Schumann (1810-1556) in 1849.
Set by Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) in 1886-8
Translation©Emily Ezust, Lied & Art Song Texts Page

ForestGirl

.

I am a bright fire blazing

from the green rocky wreath;

the sea wind is my lover and

summons me to a lusty whirlwind dance.

 

Constantly moving and changing,

rising wildly, bending gently,

I turn my slim blaze:

do not come near me – I’ll burn you!

 

Where the wild brooks roar

and the lofty palms stand,

when the hunter listens secretly,

many deer wander alone.

 

I am a deer, fleeing through the rubble,

across the heights, where in the snow

the last summits glimmer mutely;

do not follow me, do not ever try to hunt me!

 

I am a little bird in the sky,

soaring across the blue lake;

through the clouds of the ravine

no arrow flies behind me.

 

And the floodplains, the rocky arch,

as wide as the lonely forest,

so wide! I have sunk into the waves,

ah, I have evaporated!

 

eichendorf

Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff
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