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 Benjamin Hulet and Sholto Kynoch, or click here to buy the CD from Stone Records.
Liebesfrühling (Ich sah den Lenz einmal)
German source:
Nikolaus Lenau
Erwacht im schönsten Tal;
Ich sah der Liebe Licht
Im schönsten Angesicht.
Und wandl’ ich nun allein
Im Frühling durch den Hain,
Erscheint aus jedem Strauch
Ihr Angesicht mir auch.
Und seh’ ich sie am Ort,
Wo längst der Frühling fort,
So spriesst ein Lenz und schallt
Um ihre süsse Gestalt.
Love's spring
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
Awakened in the loveliest valley;
I saw the light of love
In the loveliest face.
And when I now walk alone
In spring through the wood,
Her face also appears to me
From every bush.
And if I see her at the spot,
That spring has long since left,
A spring shoots up and resounds
About her sweet figure.
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)
Liebesfrühling (Ich sah den Lenz einmal)
German source:
Nikolaus Lenau
Love's spring
English source:
Richard Stokes
Ich sah den Lenz einmal,
I once saw the spring,
Erwacht im schönsten Tal;
Awakened in the loveliest valley;
Ich sah der Liebe Licht
I saw the light of love
Im schönsten Angesicht.
In the loveliest face.
Und wandl’ ich nun allein
And when I now walk alone
Im Frühling durch den Hain,
In spring through the wood,
Erscheint aus jedem Strauch
Her face also appears to me
Ihr Angesicht mir auch.
From every bush.
Und seh’ ich sie am Ort,
And if I see her at the spot,
Wo längst der Frühling fort,
That spring has long since left,
So spriesst ein Lenz und schallt
A spring shoots up and resounds
Um ihre süsse Gestalt.
About her sweet figure.
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…