Lullaby
(Poet's title: Wiegenlied)
Set by Schubert:
D 867
[1826-1828]
Wie sich der Äuglein
Kindlicher Himmel,
Schlummerbelastet,
Lässig verschließt! –
Schließe sie einst so,
Lockt dich die Erde:
Drinnen ist Himmel,
Außen ist Lust!
Wie dir so schlafrot
Glühet die Wange:
Rosen aus Eden
Hauchten sie an:
Rosen die Wangen,
Himmel die Augen,
Heiterer Morgen,
Himmlischer Tag.
Wie des Gelockes
Goldige Wallung
Kühlet der Schläfe
Glühenden Saum.
Schön ist das Goldhaar,
Schöner der Kranz drauf:
Träum du vom Lorbeer,
Bis er dir blüht.
Liebliches Mündchen,
Engel umwehn dich,
Drinnen die Unschuld,
Drinnen die Lieb.
Wahre sie, Kindchen,
Wahre sie treulich:
Lippen sind Rosen,
Lippen sind Glut.
Wie dir ein Engel
Faltet die Händchen,
Falte sie einst so:
Gehst du zur Ruh;
Schön sind die Träume,
Wenn man gebetet:
Und das Erwachen
Lohnt mit dem Traum.
Look at how the little eye’s
Childlike heaven –
So weighed down with sleep –
Is closing so easily! –
There will come a day when it closes in the same way
As the earth calls you:
Inside is heaven,
Outside is pleasure!
Look at how red with sleeping
Your glowing cheek has become:
Roses from Eden
Have breathed on them:
Your cheeks are roses,
Your eyes are heaven,
The morning is bright,
The day is heavenly!
Look at how your locks of hair
With their golden waves
Are cooling your temple
With their glowing edges.
Your golden hair is beautiful,
The garland on it is more beautiful:
Dream of laurels
Until they blossom for you.
Lovely little mouth,
Angels are hovering around you:
Inside is innocence,
Inside is love;
Look after them, little child,
Look after them faithfully:
The lips are roses,
The lips are aglow.
Look at how an angel
Is folding your little hands;
There will come a time when they are similarly folded,
When you go to your rest;
Dreams are beautiful
When people pray:
And waking up
Is rewarded with dreams.
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:
Angels Breath and breathing Cheeks Children and childhood Dreams Eden Eyes Gold Hair Hands Heaven, the sky Laurel Lips Lullabies Mouths Prayers and praying Red and purple Roses and pink Sleep Waking up Wreaths and garlands
The literal translation of the word ‘Wiegenlied’ (lullaby) is ‘cradle song’. In the days when cradles were made of wood, the association with coffins was unavoidable. Those were also the days of high infant mortality, when mothers were aware that there was a high risk that the baby would have to be buried all too soon. When they sang about waking up the next morning this was usually more of a prayer and an incantation rather than a promise. There was a real chance that the sleep the infant was entering might be final.
In Seidl’s Wiegenlied there are two explicit references to the inevitablity of the child’s death. The eyes that are closing now will close forever when ‘the earth calls’ (i.e. when it is time to be buried). The hands that are folded so sweetly now will be folded again when the body is laid out in the coffin (‘when you go to your rest’). There is also an implicit reference at the end to the resurrection which will follow the sleep of death. At the end of the day, none of us can be sure which type of awakening is in store for us as we fall asleep.
Although the link between the cradle and the coffin is a fairly traditional element in German lullabies, the insistence on the child’s innocence was probably shockingly original for many of Seidl’s first readers. In most forms of Christian piety before the 19th century, babies were thought to be inherently selfish and sinful. They inherited Adam’s sinfulness and the consequences of the fall. They were doomed unless God’s grace could save them in the form of the sacrament of baptism (this was the teaching of both the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches). However, Seidl asserts that what is inside the baby is already ‘heaven’. He refers to the Garden of Eden, but not as the site of the fall and human disobedience – it is simply the source of the pure roses that have breathed onto the baby’s healthy cheeks. Although Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden and banned from re-entering it by sword-carrying cherubim, the angels that hover around this baby’s mouth are a clear sign of pre-lapsarian innocence. This child’s mouth is not the locus of desire and selfish passion that Freud was to write about when he discussed the oral stage of psycho-sexual development. Yet for Seidl, the redness of the lips is a sign of purity rather than passion: inside is innocence, inside is love.
These were fairly novel ideas in the early 19th century. There were not many educationalists who believed that their job was to release the inherent goodness of children; it was mostly about restraining their unbridled desires and disciplining them out of their selfish and sinful inclinations. It is also hard to believe that many parents were easily persuaded of the inherent purity of infants. It may be significant that Seidl was in his early 20’s with no experience of fatherhood when he wrote the poem.
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Original Spelling Wiegenlied Wie sich der Äuglein Kindlicher Himmel, Schlummerbelastet, Lässig verschließt! - Schließe sie einst so, Lockt dich die Erde: Drinnen ist Himmel, Außen ist Lust! Wie dir so schlafroth Glühet die Wange: Rosen aus Eden Hauchten sie an: Rosen die Wangen, Himmel die Augen, Heiterer Morgen, Himmlischer Tag! Wie des Gelockes Goldige Wallung Kühlet der Schläfe Glühenden Saum. Schön ist das Goldhaar, Schöner der Kranz drauf: Träum' du vom Lorbeer, Bis er dir blüht. Liebliches Mündchen, Engel umwehn dich: Drinnen die Unschuld, Drinnen die Lieb'; Wahre sie Kindchen, Wahre sie treulich: Lippen sind Rosen, Lippen sind Glut. Wie dir ein Engel Faltet die Händchen; Falte sie einst so: Gehst du zur Ruh; Schön sind die Träume, Wenn man gebetet: Und das Erwachen Lohnt mit dem Traum.
Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Schubert’s source, Joh. Gabr. Seidl’s Dichtungen. Erster Theil. Balladen, Romanzen, Sagen und Lieder, von Johann Gabriel Seidl. Wien. Druck und Verlag von J. P. Sollinger. 1826, pages 143-144; and with Joh. Gabr. Seidl’s gesammelte Schriften. Mit einer Einleitung von Julius von der Traun. Herausgegeben von Hans Max. Erster Band. […] Wien, 1877. Wilhelm Braumüller k.k. Hof- und Universitätsbuchhändler, pages 162-163.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 143 [155 von 226] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ179729304