Ludwig Tieck: Are they sorrows or are they joys?

By Johann Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) from Liebesgeschichte der schönen Magelone und des Grafen Peter von Provence.

Set by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), “Sind es Schmerzen, sind es Freuden”, op. 33 no. 3 (1861-9), from Romanzen aus L. Tieck’s Magelone, no. 3. Translation © Emily Ezust, Lied & Art Song Texts Page.

Sind es Schmerzen, sind es Freuden

Are they sorrows or are they joys

Which tug at my breast?

All the old desires leave;

A thousand new flowers bloom.

Through the dusk of tears

I see suns standing in the distance, -

What languishing, what longing!

Do I dare? Shall I move closer?

Ah, and when my tears are falling,

It is dark around me;

Yet if my desires do not return,

The future is empty of hope.

So beat then, my ambitious heart,

So flow down then, my tears,

Ah, joy is only a deeper pain,

Life is a dark grave, -

Without guilt,

Should I then suffer?

How is it that in my dreams

All my thoughts

Tremble up and down?

I scarcely know myself any more.

O, hear me, kindly stars,

O hear me, green meadow,

And you, my love, hear my holy oath:

If I remain far from her,

I will die gladly.

Ah, only in the light of her gaze

Dwell life and hope and happiness!

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