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 William Berger and Sholto Kynoch, or click here to buy the CD from Stone Records.
Der Fischer
(1779)
German source:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Ein Fischer sass daran,
Sah nach der Angel ruhevoll,
Kühl bis ans Herz hinein.
Und wie er sitzt und wie er lauscht,
Teilt sich die Flut empor;
Aus dem bewegten Wasser rauscht
Ein feuchtes Weib hervor.
The Angler
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
An angler on the bank
Sat gazing calmly at his line,
Cool to his very heart.
And as he sits and listens,
The waters surge and part;
And from the water’s churning swell
A water-nymph arose.
Der Fischer
(1779)
German source:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Angler
English source:
Richard Stokes
Das Wasser rauscht’, das Wasser schwoll,
The water rushed, the water rose,
Ein Fischer sass daran,
An angler on the bank
Sah nach der Angel ruhevoll,
Sat gazing calmly at his line,
Kühl bis ans Herz hinein.
Cool to his very heart.
Und wie er sitzt und wie er lauscht,
And as he sits and listens,
Teilt sich die Flut empor;
The waters surge and part;
Aus dem bewegten Wasser rauscht
And from the water’s churning swell
Ein feuchtes Weib hervor.
A water-nymph arose.
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…