Love has lied
(Poet's title: Die Liebe hat gelogen)
Set by Schubert:
D 751
[spring 1822]
Die Liebe hat gelogen,
Die Sorge lastet schwer,
Betrogen, ach, betrogen
Hat alles mich umher.
Es fließen heiße Tropfen
Die Wange stets herab,
Lass ab, mein Herz zu klopfen,
Du armes Herz, lass ab.
Love has lied,
Care weighs heavily,
Oh, I have been deceived, deceived
By everything around me!
Hot tear drops are flowing
Endlessly down my cheeks,
Stop beating, my heart,
You poor heart, stop!
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:
I have been lied to. I have been deceived. I have been betrayed. It all sounds so deliberate, so malicious, so intentionally hurtful. When we feel like this it is harder to use language that might perhaps more accurately reflect what has happened: I was deluded, I was mistaken, I misinterpreted things. Unless, of course, we really have been misled or abandoned! Whatever the objective truth of the situation, there are few people that will never feel that these lines are suited to their own condition at some point or other.
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Original Spelling and notes on the text Die Liebe hat gelogen Die Liebe hat gelogen, Die Sorge lastet schwer, Betrogen, ach, betrogen Hat alles mich umher! Es fließen1 heiße Tropfen Die Wange stets herab, Laß ab, mein Herz zu klopfen, Du armes Herz, laß ab!2 1 Schubert changed Platen´s ´rinnen´ (are trickling) to ´fließen´ (are flowing) 2 Schubert changed Platen´s ´Laß ab, laß ab zu Klopfen / Laß ab mein Herz, laß ab´ to `Laß ab, mein Herz zu klopfen / Du armes Herz, laß ab´
Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Vermischte Schriften von August Graf von Platen Hallermünde. Erlangen, bey Carl Heyder. 1822, page 90; and with Gesammelte Werke des Grafen August von Platen. In Einem Band. Stuttgart und Tübingen, J. G. Cotta’scher Verlag. 1839, page 11.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 90 [98 von 186] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ204862206