Category Archives: Fanny Mendelssohn


Geibel: “In the Autumn”

Emanuel von Geibel
1815-1884
Set by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847), “Im Herbste,” op. 10, no. 4 (1846?). Translation © Emily Ezust, Lied & Art Song Texts Page.

 

Im Herbste


On the top of the garden wall
there quivers a single last vine,
just as in my mind there quivers
painfully a single thought.
I can hardly catch it,
but it will not leave me alone,
alas, not even for one second.
And so I contemplate it, and endure
all the nights and days,
and with me always is the hollow lament,
that you are lost to me.

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel

Eichendorff: “I Wander through the Quiet Night”

Josef Karl Benedikt von Eichendorff (1788-1857)

 

Set by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847), “Nachtwanderer,” op. 7, no. 1. Translation © Emily Ezust, Lied & Art Song Texts Page.

Ich wandre durch die stille Nacht


I wander through the quiet night;
the moon floats so secretly and gently,
often out from a dark cover of clouds.
And here and there in the valley
a nightingale awakens
but then all is gray and still again.
 .
O wonderful nightsong
from distant parts - the rushing of a stream
and the soft shuddering in the dark trees
confuse my thoughts.
My clamorous singing here
is only like a cry from my dreams.
My singing is a cry,
only a cry from my dreams.
 .

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

 .
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”

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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.

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

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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!

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