Robert Alexander Schumann: Song Cycle (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)

Based on

Sängerleben

NOR

ITA

FRE

SPA

ICE

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 Your blissful, wonderful image 
 I have in my heart's depths;
 it looks so freshly and joyously
 at me in every moment.
 
 My heart sings mutely to itself
 an old, beautiful song
 that soars into the air
 and hastens to your side.

3. Conversation in the wood

Language: English

Authorship

Based on

Romanzen

NOR

ITA

FRE

SPA


 It is already late, it is already cold;
 why do you ride alone through the wood?
 The wood is vast and you are alone,
 you fair bride! I will lead you home.
 
 "Great are the deceit and cunning of men;
 my heart has broken for pain.
 The forest horn strays here and there,
 o flee! You do not know who I am." 
 
 So richly decked are mount and lady,
 so wondrously fair the young form;
 now I recognize you - God stand by me!
 You are the Witch Loreley.
 
 "You recognize me well - from the lofty cliffs
 my castle gazes down into the Rhine.
 It is already late, it is already cold -
 you shall never again leave this wood."

4. No one knows or guesses

Language: English

Authorship

Based on

Frühling und Liebe

NOR

ITA

FRE

SPA


No one knows or guesses
how glad I am, so glad!
Alas, if only one could know it, just one -
no other soul should know it!

The snow outside is not so quiet -
nor as mute and silent 
are the lofty stars,
compared with my thoughts.

[ ... ]

I wish I were a little bird -
I would fly over the sea,
well across the sea and farther,
until I were in heaven!

5. Moon-night

Language: English

Authorship

Based on

Geistliche Gedichte

NOR

DUT

RUS

ITA

FRE

SPA

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It was as if the sky
Had quietly kissed the earth,
So that in a shower of blossoms
She must only dream of him.

The breeze wafted through the fields,
The ears of corn waved gently,
The forests rustled faintly,
So sparkling clear was the night.

And my soul stretched 
its wings out far,
Flew through the still lands,
as if it were flying home.

6. Beauteous foreign land

Language: English

Authorship

Based on

Wanderlieder

NOR

ITA

FRE

SPA


 The treetops rustle and shiver
 as if at this hour 
 about the half-sunken walls
 the old gods are making their rounds.
 
 Here, behind the myrtle trees,
 in secretly darkening splendor,
 what do you say so murmuringly, as if in a dream,
 to me, fantastic night?
 
 The stars glitter down on me
 with glowing, loving gazes,
 and the distance speaks tipsily,
 it seems, of great future happiness.

7. In a castle

Language: English

Authorship

Based on

Wanderlieder

NOR

ITA

FRE

SPA


 Asleep on his watch
 up there is the old knight;
 above move rainshowers,
 and the wood rustles through the grill.
 
 Beard and hair grown into one,
 chest and ruff have turned to stone;
 he sits for many hundreds of years
 above in his silent den.
 
 Outside it is quiet and peaceful:
 all have taken to the valley;
 woodbirds sing alone
 in the empty arching windows.
 
 A wedding passes by below
 on the Rhine, in the sunlight:
 musicians play gaily
 and the fair bride - she weeps.

8. I hear the brooklets rushing

Language: English

Authorship

Based on

Wanderlieder

NOR

ITA

FRE

SPA


 I hear the brooklets rushing
 here and there in the wood.
 In the wood, amidst the rushing,
 I know not where I am.
 
 The nightingales sing
 here in the solitude,
 as if they wanted to speak
 of fine old times.
 
 The moonbeams dart
 and I seem to see below me
 a castle lying in the valley -
 yet it is so far from here!
 
 It seems as if, in the garden
 full of roses white and red,
 my sweetheart were waiting for me -
 yet she is long since dead.

9. Sometimes I can sing

Language: English

Authorship

Based on

Sängerleben

Wehmut

NOR

ITA

FRE

SPA

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 Sometimes I can sing
 as if I were happy,
 but secretly tears well up
 and free my heart.
 
 The nightingales, 
 when spring breezes play, let
 their songs of yearning resound
 from the depths of their dungeons.
 
 Then all hearts listen
 and everyone rejoices;
 yet no one truly feels the anguish
 of the song's deep sorrow.

10. Twilight

Language: English

Authorship

Based on

Wanderlieder

NOR

ITA

FRE

SPA


 Dusk prepares to spread its wings,
 the trees rustle ominously,
 clouds approach like heavy dreams -
 what does this horror mean?
 
 If you have a favorite roe,
 don't let it graze alone;
 hunters roam the forest, sounding their horns,
 their voices straying time and again.
 
 If you have a friend on earth,
 do not trust him in this hour;
 friendly might he seem in eye and mouth,
 yet he plans for war in deceitful peace.
 
 What today goes wearily down,
 will lift itself tomorrow newly born.
 Much goes astray at night -
 beware - be alert and wide awake!

11. In the woods

Language: English

Authorship

Based on

Wanderlieder

NOR

ITA

FRE

SPA


Beside the mountain there passed a wedding party.
I heard the birds singing;
then there blazed past many horsemen, their forest horns sounding.
That was a merry hunt!

And before I could think about it, everything had died away
and the night threw a cloak all around.
Only from the mountains did the woods yet rustle,
and deep in my heart I shudder.

12. Above the garden and across the sky

Language: English

Authorship

Based on