Category Archives: Fallersleben


Fallersleben: “Nightingales beat”

By August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben 1798-1874, from Gedichte, Leipzig, published 1843.
Set by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), “Nachtigallen schwingen”, op. 6 (Sechs Gesänge) no. 6 (1853). Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust, from The Lied & Art Song Texts Page.

Nachtigallen schwingen


Nightingales beat
Merrily their wings,
Nightingales sing
Their old songs.
And all the flowers,
They awaken again
To the clangor and sound
Of all these songs.

And my yearning becomes a nightingale
And flies off in the blooming world,
And asks the flowers everywhere,
Where my little flower is?

And the nightingales
Dance their circle-dance
In the halls of the bowers
Between the blossoming branches;
Among all the flowers,
however, I must be silent.

Among them I remain
Silent with my mournful thoughts:
One flower do I see,
That will not bloom.
.