This song was recorded live at the Oxford Lieder Festival as part of Hugo Wolf: The Complete Songs on Stone Records.
Click here to listen to this song with Roderick Williams and Sholto Kynoch, or click here to buy the CD from Stone Records.
Cophtisches Lied II
German source:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Nutze deine jungen Tage,
Lerne zeitig klüger sein!
Auf des Glückes großer Waage
Steht die Zunge selten ein.
Du mußt steigen oder sinken,
Du mußt herrschen und gewinnen
Oder dienen und verlieren,
Leiden oder triumphieren,
Amboß oder Hammer sein.
Cophtic Song II
(2005)
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
Make use of your young days,
Learn in good time to be wiser:
On the mighty scales of Fortune
The pointer is seldom at rest:
You must rise or you must fall,
You must win and be a master
Or you must lose and be a slave,
You must suffer or triumph,
Be the anvil or the hammer.
Cophtisches Lied II
German source:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cophtic Song II (2005)
English source:
Richard Stokes
Geh! Gehorche meinen Winken,
Go! do what I suggest,
Nutze deine jungen Tage,
Make use of your young days,
Lerne zeitig klüger sein!
Learn in good time to be wiser:
Auf des Glückes großer Waage
On the mighty scales of Fortune
Steht die Zunge selten ein.
The pointer is seldom at rest:
Du mußt steigen oder sinken,
You must rise or you must fall,
Du mußt herrschen und gewinnen
You must win and be a master
Oder dienen und verlieren,
Or you must lose and be a slave,
Leiden oder triumphieren,
You must suffer or triumph,
Amboß oder Hammer sein.
Be the anvil or the hammer.
Composer
Hugo Wolf
Hugo Filipp Jakob Wolf was born on 13 March 1860, the fourth of six surviving children, in Windischgraz, Styria, then part of the Austrian Empire. He was taught the piano and violin by his father at an early age and continued to study piano at the…
Poet
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang Goethe was a German writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on…