The singer by the cliff
(Poet's title: Der Sänger am Felsen)
Set by Schubert:
D 482
[September 1816]
Klage, o meine Flöte, klage
Die entschwundnen schönen Tage
Und des Frühlings schnelle Flucht
Hier auf den verwelkten Fluren,
Wo mein Geist umsonst die Spuren
Süßgewohnter Freuden sucht.
Klage, o meine Flöte, klage!
Einsam rufest du dem Tage,
Der dem Schmerz zu spät erwacht.
Einsam schallen meine Lieder;
Nur das Echo hallt sie wider
Durch die Schatten stiller Nacht.
Klage, meine Flöte, klage
Die entflohnen schönen Tage,
Wo ein Herz, das mir nur schlug,
Deinen sanften Liedern lauschte,
Zürnend, wenn ein Zephyr rauschte,
Und den kleinsten Laut vertrug.
Klage, meine Flöte, klage!
Nimmer kehren diese Tage!
Ungerührt hört Delia
Meiner Lieder banges Sehnen,
Sie, die ich bei deinen Tönen
Oft in Lust verloren sah!
Klage, o meine Flöte, klage!
Kürzt den Faden meiner Tage
Bald der strengen Parze Stahl:
O dann sing auf Lethe’s Matten
Irgend einem guten Schatten
Meine Lieb’ und meine Qual!
Lament, my flute! Lament
Those beautiful days that have vanished
And the swift flight of spring
Here on the wilting grasslands,
Where my spirit looks in vain for the traces
Of the sweet joys I used to know!
Lament, my flute! Lament!
On your own you will evoke that day
When I awoke too late to pain.
My songs ring out on their own,
Only the echo repeats them
Across the shadows of silent night.
Lament, my flute! Lament
Those beautiful days that have fled,
When a heart which beat only for me
Listened to your gentle songs
And became angry if a Zephyr made a noise,
Being sensitive to the faintest sound.
Lament, my flute! Lament!
Those days are never going to return.
Delia is unmoved as she hears
The anxious longing of my songs,
She who, when she was listening to your notes, I
Often saw lost in bliss!
Lament, my flute! Lament!
The thread of my days is going to be shortened
Very soon by the Fates with their strong steel;
Oh, so sing on the meadows by the River Lethe
To any good shade [and report]
My love and my distress!
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:
Being solitary, alone and lonely Cutting and wounding Day Dreams Echo Fading and losing colour Fate, luck and lotteries Fields and meadows Grass Hearts Joy Laments, elegies and mourning Lethe Longing and yearning Lost and found Mountains and cliffs Night and the moon Noise and silence Pain Pipes and flutes Shade and shadows Songs (general) Spring (season) Sweetness Threads and yarn Waking up Wind
These five stanzas are the opening section of the third of Pichler’s Idylle (in the German poetic tradition the term ‘Idylle’ corresponds to the English ‘Pastoral’). Alexis’s lament is followed by a dialogue with Mycon, who has approached, having heard the music. Alexis asks him to sit in the shade on the moss, though Mycon would prefer to be up on the hill. Alexis explains that because the shepherdess Delia does not love him he is going to stay below amongst the rocks:
Hier in den Klüften der Felsen
Will ich einsiedlerisch wohnen, hier, wo in dämmernden Grotten,
Wo in finsterem Tannenhain tiefsinnig die Schwermuth
Wohnet, und ringsher Still´ und todtes Schweigen verbreitet.
Here in the clefts of the rock
Is where I am going to live as a hermit, here, in the darkening grottoes,
Where melancholy in all its deep meaning lives in the dark pine woods
And a deathly silence and calm spreads all around.
‘Der Sänger am Felsen’ is therefore ‘the singer by the cliff’ or ‘the singer sitting on a rock’.
Mycon spends the rest of the dialogue asking why Alexis cannot get over the loss of Delia and points out the beauties and attractions of the rest of the world and how things will improve next spring. Alexis continues to wallow in his self-pity and declare his unchanging passion for his shepherdess.
She herself has no voice. We are given no indication of why she stopped finding Alexis’s songs so attractive. Might it be that she simply got bored with his repetitive style and self-indulgent tone?
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Original Spelling Der Sänger am Felsen Klag', o meine Flöte! klage Die entschwundnen schönen Tage, Und des Frühlings schnelle Flucht, Hier auf den verwelkten Fluren, Wo mein Geist umsonst die Spuren Süß gewohnter Freuden sucht! Klag', meine Flöte! klage! Einsam rufest du dem Tage, Der dem Schmerz zu spät erwacht. Einsam schallen meine Lieder, Nur das Echo hallt sie wieder Durch die Schatten stiller Nacht. Klag', meine Flöte! klage Die entflohnen schönen Tage, Wo ein Herz, das mir nur schlug, Deinen sanften Liedern lauschte, Zürnend, wenn ein Zephyr rauschte, Und den kleinsten Laut vertrug. Klag', meine Flöte! klage! Nimmer kehren diese Tage! Ungerührt hört Delia Meiner Lieder banges Sehnen, Sie, die ich bey deinen Tönen Oft in Lust verloren sah! Klag', meine Flöte! klage! Kürzt den Faden meiner Tage Bald der strengen Parze Stahl; O dann sing auf Lethe's Matten Irgend einem guten Schatten Meine Lieb' und meine Qual!
Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Idyllen. von Carolina Pichler, gebornen von Greiner. Wien Im Verlage bey Anton Pichler. 1803, pages 28-29; and with Sämmtliche Werke von Caroline Pichler, gebornen von Greiner. Zwölfter Theil. Wien, 1813. Gedruckt und im Verlage bey Anton Strauß, pages 34-35.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 34 [42 von 314] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ157263208