Text & Translation
Vorwurf
German source:
Nikolaus Lenau
Weil sich der Wald entlaubt
Und über deinem Haupt
Dahin der Wanderung der Vögel streicht?
O, klage nicht, bist selbst wandelhaft!
Denkst du der Liebesglut?
Wie nun so traurig ruht
In deiner Brust die müde Leidenschaft!
Reproach
translation ©
Richard Stokes
Because the forest leaves are falling,
And the migrating birds
Wing past overhead?
O do not complain, you also change!
Do you recall love’s ardour?
How sadly now tired passion
Dwells in your breast!
Vorwurf
German source:
Nikolaus Lenau
Reproach
source:
Richard Stokes
Du klagst, daß bange Wehmut dich beschleicht,
You complain that fearful melancholy steals over you,
Weil sich der Wald entlaubt
Because the forest leaves are falling,
Und über deinem Haupt
And the migrating birds
Dahin der Wanderung der Vögel streicht?
Wing past overhead?
O, klage nicht, bist selbst wandelhaft!
O do not complain, you also change!
Denkst du der Liebesglut?
Do you recall love’s ardour?
Wie nun so traurig ruht
How sadly now tired passion
In deiner Brust die müde Leidenschaft!
Dwells in your breast!
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
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…