Die frühen Gräber

Willkommen, o silberner Mond,
Schöner, stiller Gefährt' der Nacht!
Du entfliehst? Eile nicht, bleib', Gedankenfreund!
Sehet, er bleibt, das Gewölk wallte nur hin.

Des Maies Erwachen ist nur
Schöner noch, wie die Sommernacht,
Wenn ihm Tau, hell wie Licht, aus der Locke träuft,
Und zu dem Hügel herauf rötlich er kömmt.

Ihr Edleren, ach, es bewächst
Eure Male schon ernstes Moos!
O, wie glücklich war ich, als ich [noch]1 mit euch
Sähe sich röten den Tag, schimmern die Nacht!

View text without footnotes
¹ ? : "einst"

Authorship

by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) , "Die frühen Gräber"

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714-1787) , "Die frühen Gräber", 1786.
by Wilhelm Ferdinand Halter (-1806) , "Die frühen Gräber", published 1782.
by Ernst Křenek (1900-1991) , "Die frühen Gräber", op. 19 no. 5 (1923).
by Fritz Lissauer , "Die frühen Gräber", op. 89 no. 1. [mixed chorus and piano]
by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847) , "Die frühen Gräber", op. 9 no. 4 (1828).
by Wilhelm Petersen (1890-1957) , "Die frühen Gräber", op. 13 no. 2, from Drei Oden von Klopstock, no. 2.
by Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828) , "Die frühen Gräber", D. 290 (1815), published 1837.

ENG English (Emily Ezust)
DUT Dutch [singable] (Lau Kanen)

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

Notes about green, red, and white dots

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The early graves

 Welcome, o silver moon,
 fair, quiet companion of the night!
 You flee? Don't hurry away - remain, friend of thought!
 Look, it stays - it was only the clouds that were moving.
 
 Only the awakening May
 is yet fairer than the summer night,
 when dew, bright as light, trickles from his locks
 and red, he comes up over the hill.
 
 You nobler beings, alas! overgrown
 are your monuments, with stern moss!
 O, how happy I was when, still with you,
 I saw day redden and night glimmer!

Authorship

Translation from German to English copyright © by Emily Ezust,

a text in German by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) , "Die frühen Gräber" DUT

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.