Songs

Die Nonne

by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel

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Text

Die Nonne
German source: Johann Ludwig Uhland

Im stillen Klostergarten
Eine bleiche Jungfrau ging.
Der Mond beschien sie trübe,
An ihrer Wimper hing,
Die Träne zarter Liebe.

“O wohl mir, dass gestorben,
Der treue Buhle mein!
Ich darf ihn wieder lieben:
Er wird ein Engel sein,
Und Engel darf ich lieben.”

Sie trat mit zagem Schritte
Wohl zum Mariabild;
Es stand im lichten Scheine.
Es sah so muttermild
Herunter auf die Reine.

Sie sank zu seinen Füssen,
Sah auf mit Himmelsruh,
Bis ihre Augenlider
Im Tode fielen zu:
Ihr Schleier wallte nieder.

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

Johann Ludwig Uhland

Johann Ludwig Uhland, was a German poet, philologist and literary historian. He was born in Tübingen, Württemberg, and studied jurisprudence at the university there, but also took an interest in medieval literature, especially old German and French…

Performances

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