Text & Translation
Die Mainacht
German source:
Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty
Und sein schlummerndes Licht über den Rasen streut,
Und die Nachtigall flötet,
Wandl' ich traurig von Busch zu Busch.
Selig preis' ich dich dann, flötende Nachtigall,
Weil dein Weibchen mit dir wohnet in Einem Nest,
Ihrem singenden Gatten
Tausend trauliche Küsse giebt.
Überhüllet von Laub girret ein Taubenpaar
Sein Entzücken mir vor; aber ich wende mich,
Suche dunklere Schatten,
Und die einsame Thräne rinnt.
The May Night
English translation ©
Richard Wigmore
and casts its drowsy light over the grass;
when the nightingale warbles,
I wander mournfully from bush to bush.
Then I deem you blessed, fluting nightingale,
because your sweetheart dwells with you in a single
nest, and gives a thousand loving kisses
to her warbling mate.
Concealed in foliage, a pair of doves
coo to me in delight; but I turn away
in search of deeper shadows,
and shed a solitary tear.
Die Mainacht
German source:
Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty
The May Night
English source:
Richard Wigmore
Wann der silberne Mond durch die Gesträuche blinkt,
When the silver moon shines through the shrubbery
Und sein schlummerndes Licht über den Rasen streut,
and casts its drowsy light over the grass;
Und die Nachtigall flötet,
when the nightingale warbles,
Wandl' ich traurig von Busch zu Busch.
I wander mournfully from bush to bush.
Selig preis' ich dich dann, flötende Nachtigall,
Then I deem you blessed, fluting nightingale,
Weil dein Weibchen mit dir wohnet in Einem Nest,
because your sweetheart dwells with you in a single
Ihrem singenden Gatten
nest, and gives a thousand loving kisses
Tausend trauliche Küsse giebt.
to her warbling mate.
Überhüllet von Laub girret ein Taubenpaar
Concealed in foliage, a pair of doves
Sein Entzücken mir vor; aber ich wende mich,
coo to me in delight; but I turn away
Suche dunklere Schatten,
in search of deeper shadows,
Und die einsame Thräne rinnt.
and shed a solitary tear.
Composer
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel
Fanny Hensel, née Mendelssohn (1805-47), was an exceptionally gifted musician whose potential was stifled by the gendered social conventions of her upper-middle-class background in mid-19th-century Berlin. She came from a wealthy and cultivated…
Poet
Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty
Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty, was German poet who is considered the most gifted lyric poet of the Göttinger Hain, a group of young poets who saw themselves as heirs of the great lyric poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and whose work was…