Im wunderschönen Monat Mai
Im wunderschönen Monat Mai,
Als alle Knospen sprangen,
Da ist in meinem Herzen
Die Liebe aufgegangen.
Im wunderschönen Monat Mai,
Als alle Vögel sangen,
Da hab ich ihr gestanden
Mein Sehnen und Verlangen.
This poem by Heinrich Heine (I’m sure I need not tell you) is one of my favorites, and was famously set to music by Schumann. I had intended to post it to herald the beginning of May, but distractions got the better of me, so I am afraid it must herald the month’s departure.
This post was published on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 10:01 pm. It has been categorised under
Germany and been tagged under
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7:43 am
One of my favourite Lieder as well! I do hope, though, that your heart isn’t broken as decidedly as that of the poor chap in Dicterliebe!
7:44 am
Errr, Dichterliebe. Oops.
9:47 pm
Translation, perhaps? I always wanted to learn German, but alas, all I can make out from the poem is that it’s about the month of May!
11:15 pm
Heine is truly untranslatable. Perhaps even more than even Goethe because Heine uses words which at first glance appear simple. But try and translate them, together with their equivocal meanings, sounds, and nuances and you will soon see that this is impossible. And even for those of us who are lucky enough to read his works in the original, the inner meanings are still equivocal.
4:04 pm
A blind man sang this while drinking Dutch beer in a New York bar. Transcendent.