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 Geraldine McGreevy and Sholto Kynoch, or click here to buy the CD from Stone Records.
Wer rief dich denn? Wer hat dich herbestellt?
German source:
Paul Heyse
Wer hiess dich kommen, wenn es dir zur Last?
Geh zu dem Liebchen, das dir mehr gefällt,
Geh dahin, wo du die Gedanken hast.
Geh nur, wohin dein Sinnen steht und Denken!
Dass du zu mir kommst, will ich gern dir schenken.
Geh zu dem Liebchen, das dir mehr gefällt!
Wer rief dich denn? Wer hat dich herbestellt?
Who called you, then? Who sent for you?
English translation ©
Richard Stokes
Who asked you to come, if it’s a burden?
Go to the sweetheart you like better,
Go there – where your thoughts are.
Just go to her you dream and think of!
I’ll gladly spare you from seeing me.
Go to the sweetheart you like better!
Who called you, then? Who sent for you?
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)
Wer rief dich denn? Wer hat dich herbestellt?
German source:
Paul Heyse
Who called you, then? Who sent for you?
English source:
Richard Stokes
Wer rief dich denn? Wer hat dich herbestellt?
Who called you, then? Who sent for you?
Wer hiess dich kommen, wenn es dir zur Last?
Who asked you to come, if it’s a burden?
Geh zu dem Liebchen, das dir mehr gefällt,
Go to the sweetheart you like better,
Geh dahin, wo du die Gedanken hast.
Go there – where your thoughts are.
Geh nur, wohin dein Sinnen steht und Denken!
Just go to her you dream and think of!
Dass du zu mir kommst, will ich gern dir schenken.
I’ll gladly spare you from seeing me.
Geh zu dem Liebchen, das dir mehr gefällt!
Go to the sweetheart you like better!
Wer rief dich denn? Wer hat dich herbestellt?
Who called you, then? Who sent for you?
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…