The foliage
(Poet's title: Die Laube)
Set by Schubert:
D 214
[June 17, 1815]
Nimmer werd ich, nimmer dein vergessen,
Kühle grüne Dunkelheit,
Wo mein liebes Mädchen oft gesessen,
Und des Frühlings sich gefreut.
Schauer wird durch meine Nerven beben,
Werd ich deine Blüten sehn,
Und ihr Bildnis mir entgegen schweben,
Ihre Gottheit mich umwehn.
Tränenvoll werd ich beim Mondenlichte,
In der Geisterstunde Graun,
Dir entgegen zittern, und Gesichte
Auf Gesichte werd ich schaun;
Mich in manchen Göttertraum verirren,
Bis Entzückung mich durchbebt,
Und nach meinem süßen Täubchen girren,
Dessen Abschied vor mir schwebt.
Wann ich auf der Bahn der Tugend wanke,
Weltvergnügen mich bestrickt,
Dann durchglühe mich der Feu´rgedanke,
Was in dir ich einst erblickt:
Uns, als strömt’ aus Gottes offnem Himmel
Tugendkraft auf mich herab,
Werd ich fliehen; und vom Erdgewimmel
Fernen meinen Pilgerstab.
I shall never, never forget you,
Cool, green darkness
Where my beloved girl often sat
And enjoyed spring.
Shudders will pass down my nerves
Whenever I see your blossoms
And her image will hover ahead of me
With her divinity surrounding me.
I fill up with tears in the moonlight,
In the horror of the witching-hour,
And tremble opposite you. Face
After face I will behold.
I get lost in many a dream of the gods
Until delight suffuses me,
And I coo after my sweet little dove,
Whose farewell hovers before me.
If ever I wander from the path of virtue
Captivated by the pleasures of the world,
Then these fiery thoughts glow through me
Which I once beheld in you.
For us, it is as if, out of God’s open heaven, there was a flow of
Virtuous power descending on me,
And I will flee, leaving the tumult of earth,
Far away from my pilgrim’s staff.
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:
Doves and pigeons Dreams Evening and the setting sun Faces Farewell and leave taking Fire Fleeing Flowers Flying, soaring and gliding Ghosts and spirits Green Heaven, the sky Leaves and foliage Near and far Nerves Night and the moon Paths Pictures and paintings Pilgrims and pilgrimage Rivers (Strom) Spring (season) Sweetness Tears and crying Walking sticks (Wanderstab)
‘Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
Hamlet Act III Scene 2
Night thickens, and the crow
Makes wing to th’ rooky wood.
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
While night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.
Macbeth Act III Scene 2
Hölty is the sort of eighteenth century poet that we think of as writing more about ‘the picturesque’ than ‘the sublime’, so the tone of ‘Die Laube‘ comes as something of a surprise. As the sun sets, shadows lengthen and twilight leads to poetic musings on loss and regret, we expect a restrained melancholy rather than references to shuddering nerves and the horror or terror of the witching hour (Geisterstunde = the hour of the spirits or ghosts). Why should these shudders be precipitated by blossoms? Why does he fear spirits in the place where she sat and enjoyed the pleasures of spring?
Are the ‘fiery thoughts’ of the lost beloved just memories of an ‘ardent’ passion (this is Emily Ezust’s translation of ‘Feu’rgedanke’) or are they thoughts that set fire to something different within him, some sort of guilt? They are connected with him envisaging a future in which he might (presumably not for the first time) stray away from the path of virtue, and he recalls a fiery look in her eye that was perhaps more than affection. Accusation?
The tone becomes even more muddled when he refers to the lost beloved as his little turtle dove. Can this be the same woman in whose presence he trembles and who gives him the sensation that he is in the presence of divinity? Is he, perhaps, the sort of young man that does not relate to real women, only to different fantasies and stereotypes (he does say that he beholds ‘face after face’, so he seems to have problems focusing on a single image)? What sort of relationship did they actually have? In what sense did she bid farewell? Has she died and become one of the ghosts that might terrify him at night or has she been suffused with the sort of divinity he says he is striving towards? Did she become unavailable (by marrying someone else, perhaps)? Did she just give him one of her looks and make it clear that they were not going to meet again?
And why is the text called ‘foliage’ (Die Laube)? It is presumably some sort of metonym for the beloved. The poet associates her with a shady bower, some sort of arbour where she used to sit (and have assignations?) surrounded by green foliage (and sometimes blossom). In Hölty’s original version of this text she was called Laura (they often were in poems of this vintage), so she probably sat amongst the laurels. No wonder an uncertain youth was intimidated.
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Original Spelling and note on the text Die Laube Nimmer werd' ich, nimmer dein vergessen, Kühle, grüne Dunkelheit, Wo mein liebes Mädchen oft gesessen, Und des Frühlings sich gefreut! Schauer wird durch meine Nerven beben, Werd' ich deine Blüthen sehn, Und ihr Bildniß mir entgegen schweben, Ihre Gottheit mich umwehn! Thränenvoll werd' ich, beym Mondenlichte, In der Geisterstunde Graun, Dir entgegenzittern, und Gesichte Auf Gesichte werd' ich schaun; Mich in manchen Göttertraum verirren, Bis Entzückung mich durchbebt, Und nach meinem süßen Täubchen girren, Dessen Abschied1 vor mir schwebt! Wann ich auf der Bahn der Tugend wanke, Weltvergnügen mich bestrickt; Dann durchglühe mich der Feurgedanke, Was in dir ich einst erblickt! Uns, als strömt' aus Gottes offnem Himmel Tugendkraft auf mich herab, Werd' ich fliehen, und vom Erdgewimmel Fernen meinen Pilgerstab! 1 The word Abschied (farewell) was a misprint in the Voß edition of Hölty that Schubert was using. Hölty wrote Abbild (image).
Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Schubert’s source, Gedichte von L. H. Ch. Hölty. Neu besorgt und vermehrt von Johann Heinrich Voß. Wien, 1815. Bey Chr. Kaulfuß und C. Armbruster. Gedruckt bey Anton Strauß. Meisterwerke deutscher Dichter und Prosaisten. Drittes Bändchen. pages 153-154; with Poetische Blumenlese Auf das Jahr 1775. Göttingen und Gotha bey Johann Christian Dieterich, pages 143-144; with Gedichte von Ludewig Heinrich Christoph Hölty. Nebst Briefen des Dichters herausgegeben von Karl Halm. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1869, pages 163-164; and with Gedichte von Ludewig Heinrich Christoph Hölty. Besorgt durch seine Freunde Friederich Leopold Grafen zu Stolberg und Johann Heinrich Voß. Hamburg, bei Carl Ernst Bohn. 1783, pages 165-166.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 153 [231 von 300] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ15769170X