Category Archives: Eduard Mörike


Eduard Mörike: “The Fire-Rider”

By Eduard Mörike (1804-1875) Set by Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) , “Der Feuerreiter”, from Mörike-Lieder, no. 44. Translation © by Emily Ezust, from The Lied & Art Song Texts Page.

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Der Feuerreiter 

Do you see at the window
there again, that red cap?
Something must be the matter
for it is going up and down.
And what a sudden mob
is now by the bridge near the field!
Hark! the fire-bell is shrilling:
beyond the hill,
beyond the hill,
there's a fire in the mill!
.
Look, there he goes, galloping furiously
through the gate - it's the fire-rider
on his horse, a bony nag
like a fire-ladder!
Across the fields, through the smoke and heat
he plunges, and he's already reached his goal!
Over there the bells are pealing,
beyond the hill,
beyond the hill,
there's a fire in the mill!
.
You who so often smelled fire
from a mile off,
and with a fragment of the holy cross
maliciously conjured the blaze -
Woe! from the rafters there grins
the Enemy of Man in hellish light.

May God have mercy on your soul!
Beyond the hill,
beyond the hill,
he is raging in the mill!
.
Not an hour had passed
before the mill was reduced to rubble;
but the bold rider
from that hour was never seen again.
People and wagons in crowds
turn toward home away from all the horror;
and the bell stops ringing:
beyond the hill,
beyond the hill,
it's burning!
.
Later a miller found
a skeleton together with the cap
upright against the wall of the cellar
sitting on the mare of bone:
Fire-rider, how coolly
you ride now to your grave!
Hush! there it falls to ashes.
Rest well,
rest well,
down there in the mill!
 

Eduard Mörike: “A Song for Two in the Night”

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A SONG FOR TWO IN THE NIGHT
  (1825)
_She_. How soft the night wind strokes the meadow grasses
And, breathing music, through the woodland passes!
Now that the upstart day is dumb,
One hears from the still earth a whispering throng
Of forces animate, with murmured song
Joining the zephyrs' well-attunèd hum.

, _He_. I catch the tone from wondrous voices brimming,
Which sensuous on the warm wind drifts to me,
While, streaked with misty light uncertainly,
The very heavens in the glow are swimming.

. _She_. The air like woven fabric seems to wave,
Then more transparent and more lustrous groweth;
Meantime a muted melody outgoeth
From happy fairies in their purple cave.
To sphere-wrought harmony
Sing they, and busily
The thread upon their silver spindles floweth.

, _He_. Oh lovely night! how effortless and free
O'er samite black-though green by day--thou movest!
And to the whirring music that thou lovest
Thy foot advances imperceptibly.
Thus hour by hour thy step doth measure--
In trancèd self-forgetful pleasure
Thou'rt rapt; creation's soul is rapt with thee!

Eduard Mörike: “Two Lovers”

Excerpt:  “German Lyrics.”  Translated Charles T. Brooks.  1853.

Eduard Mörike: “Seclusion”

Excerpt, “English Echoes of German Song.” Tr. by R. E. Wallis, J. D. Morell and F. D’Anvers. Ed. by N. D’Anvers. London: 1877.seclusion

Eduard Mörike: “An Hour Ere Break of Day”

 Excerpt,“Lyrics and Ballads of Heine and Other German Poets.”  Translated by Frances Hellman.  1892.

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Eduard Mörike: “Fair Rohtraut”

fair rohtraut.

.

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MÖRIKE: “Early Away”

Written by EDUARD MÖRIKE in 1828.

Translation: Charles Wharton Stork

“Früh im Wagen”

 

The morning frost shines gray
Along the misty field
Beneath the pallid way
Of early dawn revealed.

Amid the glow one sees
The day-star disappear;
Yet o'er the western trees
The moon is shining clear.

So, too, I send my glance
On distant scenes to dwell;
I see in torturing trance
The night of our farewell.

Blue eyes, a lake of bliss,
Swim dark before my sight,
Thy breath, I feel, thy kiss;
I hear thy whispering light.

My cheek upon thy breast
The streaming tears bedew,
Till, purple-black, is cast
A veil across my view.

The sun comes out; he glows,
And straight my dreams depart,
While from the cliffs he throws
A chill across my heart.