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 Katherine Broderick and Sholto Kynoch, or click here to buy the CD from Stone Records.
Die Nacht
German source:
Joseph von Eichendorff
Lust und Leid und Liebesklagen
Kommen so verworren her
In dem linden Wellenschlagen.
Wünsche wie die Wolken sind,
Schiffen durch die stillen Räume,
Wer erkennt im lauen Wind,
Ob’s Gedanken oder Träume? -
Schliess’ ich nun auch Herz und Mund,
Die so gern den Sternen klagen,
Leise doch im Herzensgrund
Bleibt das linde Wellenschlagen.
Night
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
Joy and pain and lover’s laments
Mingle in such confusion
In the gently lapping waves.
Wishes are like clouds,
Sailing through the silent space,
Who can tell in the warm breeze
If they be thoughts of dreams?
Though I now close my heart and lips
That love lamenting to the stars:
Still in the depths of my heart,
The waves pulse gently on.
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)
Die Nacht
German source:
Joseph von Eichendorff
Night
English source:
Richard Stokes
Nacht ist wie ein stilles Meer,
Night is like a silent sea,
Lust und Leid und Liebesklagen
Joy and pain and lover’s laments
Kommen so verworren her
Mingle in such confusion
In dem linden Wellenschlagen.
In the gently lapping waves.
Wünsche wie die Wolken sind,
Schiffen durch die stillen Räume,
Wer erkennt im lauen Wind,
Ob’s Gedanken oder Träume? -
Schliess’ ich nun auch Herz und Mund,
Wishes are like clouds,
Die so gern den Sternen klagen,
Sailing through the silent space,
Leise doch im Herzensgrund
Who can tell in the warm breeze
Bleibt das linde Wellenschlagen.
If they be thoughts of dreams?
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
Joseph von Eichendorff
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff was a German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist. Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism. Ever since their publication and up to the present day, some…