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 Anna Huntley and Sholto Kynoch, or click here to buy the CD from Stone Records.
Frage nicht
German source:
Nikolaus Lenau
Ich weiss es nicht und will nicht fragen;
Mein Herz behalte seine Kunde,
Wie tief es dein im Grunde.
O still! ich möchte sonst erschrecken,
Könnt’ ich die Stelle nicht entdecken,
Die unzerstört für Gott verbliebe,
Beim Tode deiner Liebe.
Do not ask
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
I do not know and shall not ask;
Let my heart keep for itself
The depth of its love for you.
O be silent! Else I might take fright,
Were I unable to find the place in my heart,
That would always live for God alone,
If your own love were to die.
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)
Frage nicht
German source:
Nikolaus Lenau
Do not ask
English source:
Richard Stokes
Wie sehr ich dein, soll ich dir sagen?
I should tell you how much I love you?
Ich weiss es nicht und will nicht fragen;
I do not know and shall not ask;
Mein Herz behalte seine Kunde,
Let my heart keep for itself
Wie tief es dein im Grunde.
The depth of its love for you.
O still! ich möchte sonst erschrecken,
O be silent! Else I might take fright,
Könnt’ ich die Stelle nicht entdecken,
Were I unable to find the place in my heart,
Die unzerstört für Gott verbliebe,
That would always live for God alone,
Beim Tode deiner Liebe.
If your own love were to die.
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
Nikolaus Lenau
Nikolaus Lenau was the nom de plume of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau, a German-language Austrian poet. He was born at Schadat, now Lenauheim, Romania, then in Hungary. His father, a Habsburg government official, died in 1807 in…