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 Marcus Farnsworth and Sholto Kynoch, or click here to buy the CD from Stone Records.
Deine Mutter, süsses Kind
German source:
Paul Heyse
Da sie in den Weh’n gelegen,
Brausen hörte sie den Wind.
Und so hat sie dich geboren
Mit dem falschen wind’gen Sinn.
Hast du heut ein Herz erkoren,
Wirfst es morgen treulos hin.
Doch den zähl’ ich zu den Toren,
Der dich schmäht der Untreu wegen:
Dein Geschick war dir entgegen;
Denn die Mutter, süsses Kind,
Da sie in den Weh’n gelegen,
Brausen hörte sie den Wind.
Your mother, sweet child,
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
When she lay in labour,
Could hear the roaring wind.
And so you were born
As false and fickle as the wind.
If you choose a lover today,
You’ll discard him faithlessly tomorrow.
Yet I count him a fool
Who chides you for your infidelity:
Your destiny was against you;
For your mother, sweet child,
When she lay in labour,
Could hear the roaring wind.
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)
Deine Mutter, süsses Kind
German source:
Paul Heyse
Your mother, sweet child,
English source:
Richard Stokes
Deine Mutter, süsses Kind,
Your mother, sweet child,
Da sie in den Weh’n gelegen,
When she lay in labour,
Brausen hörte sie den Wind.
Could hear the roaring wind.
Und so hat sie dich geboren
Mit dem falschen wind’gen Sinn.
Hast du heut ein Herz erkoren,
Wirfst es morgen treulos hin.
Doch den zähl’ ich zu den Toren,
Der dich schmäht der Untreu wegen:
Dein Geschick war dir entgegen;
Denn die Mutter, süsses Kind,
Da sie in den Weh’n gelegen,
Brausen hörte sie den Wind.
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
Paul Heyse
Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse was a distinguished German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the Tunnel über der Spree in Berlin and Die Krokodile in Munich, he wrote novels, poetry, 177 short stories, and about sixty…