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 Marcus Farnsworth and Sholto Kynoch, or click here to buy the CD from Stone Records.
Stille Sicherheit
German source:
Nikolaus Lenau
Mädchen, wir sind sicher und allein.
Still umsäuselt hier den Wiesenhang
Schon der Abendglocke müder Klang.
Auf den Blumen, die sich dir verneigt,
Schlief das letzte Lüftchen ein und schweigt.
Sagen darf ich dir – wir sind allein –:
Dass mein Herz ist ewig, ewig dein!
Quiet certainty
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
My girl, we are safe and alone.
Quietly the weary sound of evening bells
Murmur around the meadow’s slope.
On the flowers, that incline toward you,
The last breeze has died and now is silent.
I can tell you – we are alone –
My heart is ever, ever yours!
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)
Stille Sicherheit
German source:
Nikolaus Lenau
Quiet certainty
English source:
Richard Stokes
Horch, wie still es wird im dunkeln Hain,
Hark how quiet it grows in the dark wood,
Mädchen, wir sind sicher und allein.
My girl, we are safe and alone.
Still umsäuselt hier den Wiesenhang
Quietly the weary sound of evening bells
Schon der Abendglocke müder Klang.
Murmur around the meadow’s slope.
Auf den Blumen, die sich dir verneigt,
On the flowers, that incline toward you,
Schlief das letzte Lüftchen ein und schweigt.
The last breeze has died and now is silent.
Sagen darf ich dir – wir sind allein –:
I can tell you – we are alone –
Dass mein Herz ist ewig, ewig dein!
My heart is ever, ever yours!
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…