Memories
(Poet's title: Erinnerungen)
Set by Schubert:
D 98
[autumn 1814]
D 424
for TTB trio[May 1816]
Am Seegestad, in lauen Vollmondsnächten,
Denk ich nur dich;
Zu deines Namens goldnem Zug verflechten
Die Sterne sich.
Die Wildnis glänzt in ungewohnter Helle,
Von dir erfüllt;
Auf jedes Blatt, in jede Schattenquelle
Malt sich dein Bild.
Gern weil ich, Grazie, wo du den Hügel
Hinabgeschwebt,
Leicht, wie ein Rosenblatt auf Zephyrs Flügel
Vorüberbebt.
Am Hüttchen dort bekränzt ich dir, umflossen
Von Abendglut,
Mit Immergrün und jungen Blütensprossen,
Den Halmenhut.
Bei jedem Lichtwurm in den Felsenstücken,
Als ob die Feen
Da Tänze webten, riefst du voll Entzücken:
Wie schön, wie schön!
Wohin ich blick und geh, erblick ich immer
Den Wiesenplan,
Wo wir der Berge Schnee mit Purpurschimmer
Beleuchtet sahn.
Ihr schmelzend Mailied weinte Philomele
Im Uferhain;
Da fleht ich dir, im Blick die ganze Seele:
Gedenke mein!
On the seashore, on mild nights lit by the full moon,
I think only of you!
The golden pull of your name becomes intertwined
With the stars.
The wilderness glows with an unusual brightness,
Filled with you.
On every leaf, in every shady spring,
Your picture is being painted.
I happily wait, gracious one, by the hillside
As you float down,
Light, like a rose petal on a zephyr’s wings
That is shaking as it passes.
Over there at the little hut I put a garland on you, bathed
In evening light.
With evergreen and young flower buds
The garland is on your straw hat.
Whenever you saw a glow-worm in the cracks in the rocks,
As if the fairies
Were weaving dances there, you cried out, full of delight,
“How beautiful, how beautiful!”
Wherever I look or travel, I always see before me
The plain of meadows
Where we saw the snow on the mountains shimmering purple
As it was lit up.
Philomel cried her melting May song
In the grove by the shore;
That is where I begged you, with all my soul in the look I gave you,
“Remember me!”
All translations into English that appear on this website, unless otherwise stated, are by Malcolm Wren. You are free to use them on condition that you acknowledge Malcolm Wren as the translator and schubertsong.uk as the source. Unless otherwise stated, the comments and essays that appear after the texts and translations are by Malcolm Wren and are © Copyright.
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Themes and images in this text:
Dancing Deserts Evening and the setting sun Fields and meadows Flowers Gold Hills and mountains Huts Lakes Leaves and foliage Light May Mountains and cliffs Names Night and the moon Nightingales, Philomel Pictures and paintings The sea Snow Springs, sources and fountains Stars Wind Worms
Throughout this text, remembering is a process, not a set of fixed or frozen images. The golden stars do not simply spell out the beloved’s (unspoken) name, they twist themselves around it or intertwine with it. The leaves do not already bear her image, they are currently having her portrait painted on them. This is because the poet’s memories are not ‘snapshots’ (an anachronistic concept for this 18th century context) of brief moments. What stands out in memory are events and processes in time, verbs not nouns.
The poet recalls the pleasure of anticipation as he watched her approach (in perception, though surely not in reality, as if she were a rose petal trembling in the breeze). He remembers crowning her with a straw hat bedecked with foliage (presumably this was in the middle of winter, explaining why it had evergreen leaves and what he tells himself, and perhaps told her, were the hints of buds suggesting that spring was on its way). He recalls her delight when watching the movement (poetically now dancing and weaving) of glow worms. He can never forget (or rather the image never leaves him) how they shared an experience of a sunset transforming the view of snow-capped mountains. Again, it is not the view itself that matters but the change in perception that came as time passed. The nightingale’s song also takes time, and we are not the same people at the end of it that we were when we began listening (so it is described as ‘melting’, ‘schmelzend’).
Those of us brought up in the time of easily portable cameras have to remind ourselves that the momentary images we attempt to capture are not fully representative of our experience and might distort memory. In Matthisson’s world, even gifted and well-equipped draftsmen needed time to make even a simple sketch of a distant mountain, and that it was a process more of watching than of looking. Consequently, a set of memories is more like home cinema than a slide show.
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Original Spelling Erinnerungen Am Seegestad, in lauen Vollmondsnächten, Denk' ich nur dich! Zu deines Namens goldnem Zug verflechten Die Sterne sich. Die Wildniß glänzt in ungewohnter Helle, Von dir erfüllt; Auf jedes Blatt, in jede Schattenquelle Malt sich dein Bild. Gern weil´ ich, Grazie, wo du den Hügel Hinabgeschwebt, Leicht, wie ein Rosenblatt auf Zephyrs Flügel Vorüberbebt. Am Hüttchen dort bekränzt' ich dir, umflossen Von Abendgluth, Mit Immergrün und jungen Blüthensprossen, Den Halmenhut. Bei jedem Lichtwurm in den Felsenstücken, Als ob die Feen Da Tänze webten, riefst du voll Entzücken: Wie schön! wie schön! Wohin ich blick' und geh´, erblick' ich immer Den Wiesenplan, Wo wir der Berge Schnee mit Purpurschimmer Beleuchtet sahn. Ihr schmelzend Mailied weinte Philomele Im Uferhain; Da fleht' ich dir, im Blick die ganze Seele: Gedenke mein!
Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Schubert’s source, Gedichte von Matthisson. Neueste verbesserte Auflage. Wien und Prag bey Franz Haas 1810. pages 166-167; and with Gedichte von Friedrich von Matthisson. Erster Theil. Tübingen, bei Cotta, 1811, pages 266-267.
First published in Musen-Almanach für 1793, herausgegeben von Joh. Heinr. Voß, Hamburg, bey C.E.Bohn, pages 184-185. This first edition has an additional (third) stanza which was left out in later editions:
Gern wandl' ich, wo des Erlenbaches Krümme Durch Blumen wallt, Indeß der holde Nachklang deiner Stimme Ins Herz mir hallt.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 166 [174 von 296] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ169509602