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 Mark Stone and Sholto Kynoch, or click here to buy the CD from Stone Records.
Was für ein Lied soll dir gesungen werden
German source:
Paul Heyse
Das deiner würdig sei? Wo find ich’s nur?
Am liebsten grüb' ich es tief aus der Erden,
Gesungen noch von keiner Kreatur.
Ein Lied, das weder Mann noch Weib bis heute
Hört oder sang, selbst nicht die ältsten Leute.
What kind of song shall be sung for you
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
That does you justice? Wherever can I find it?
I’d prefer to dig it from deep in the earth,
As yet unsung by any creature.
A song that till now no man nor woman
Has ever heard or sung, however old they be.
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)
Was für ein Lied soll dir gesungen werden
German source:
Paul Heyse
What kind of song shall be sung for you
English source:
Richard Stokes
Was für ein Lied soll dir gesungen werden,
What kind of song shall be sung to you
Das deiner würdig sei? Wo find ich’s nur?
That does you justice? Wherever can I find it?
Am liebsten grüb' ich es tief aus der Erden,
I’d prefer to dig it from deep in the earth,
Gesungen noch von keiner Kreatur.
As yet unsung by any creature.
Ein Lied, das weder Mann noch Weib bis heute
A song that till now no man nor woman
Hört oder sang, selbst nicht die ältsten Leute.
Has ever heard or sung, however old they be.
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
Paul Heyse
Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse was a distinguished German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the Tunnel über der Spree in Berlin and Die Krokodile in Munich, he wrote novels, poetry, 177 short stories, and about sixty…