Longing
(Poet's title: Sehnsucht)
Set by Schubert:
D 123
[December 3, 1814]
Part of Goethe: The second collection intended for Goethe
Was zieht mir das Herz so?
Was zieht mich hinaus
Und windet und schraubt mich
Aus Zimmer und Haus?
Wie dort sich die Wolken
Am Felsen verziehn,
Da möcht ich hinüber,
Da möcht ich wohl hin!
Nun wiegt sich der Raben
Geselliger Flug,
Ich mische mich drunter
Und folge dem Zug.
Und Berg und Gemäuer
Umfittigen wir;
Sie weilet da drunten,
Ich spähe nach ihr.
Da kommt sie und wandelt,
Ich eile sobald,
Ein singender Vogel
Im buschigten Wald.
Sie weilet und horchet
Und lächelt mit sich:
“Er singet so lieblich
Und singt es an mich.”
Die scheidende Sonne
Vergüldet die Höhn,
Die sinnende Schöne,
Sie läßt es geschehen.
Sie wandelt am Bache
Die Wiesen entlang,
Und finster und finstrer
Umschlingt sich der Gang.
Auf einmal erschein ich,
Ein blinkender Stern.
“Was glänzet da droben,
So nah und so fern?”
Und hast du mit Staunen
Das Leuchten erblickt,
Ich lieg dir zu Füßen,
Da bin ich beglückt!
What is pulling at my heart like that?
What is drawing me outside?
What is winching and prizing me
Out of the room and the house?
Just like the clouds there
Being twisted over the cliff!
I’d like to go up there,
I’d really like to go there!
Now the ravens are swaying
In collaborative flight;
I mix myself up with them
And follow their course.
And mountain and masonry
We fly around them;
She remains below,
I try to spot her.
There she comes, going for a walk;
I rush immediately,
A singing bird
In the bushy forest.
She pauses and listens
And smiles to herself,
“He is singing in such a loving way
And he is singing it for me.”
The departing sun
Gilds the heights,
That pondering beauty,
She lets it happen.
She walks by the stream
Along the meadows.
And darker and darker
Becomes her entwined path.
At once, I appear,
A twinkling star.
“What is shining up there,
So near and so far off?”
And when, with amazement, you have
Caught sight of this light,
I shall lie at your feet.
Then I shall be made happy!
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:
Birds Clouds By water – river banks Evening and the setting sun Feet Fields and meadows Flying, soaring and gliding Gold Hearts High, low and deep Houses Light Longing and yearning Mountains and cliffs Near and far Paths Pulling and dragging Ravens Rivers (Bach) Rooms Songs (general) Stars Swaying and swinging Walking and wandering Woods – large woods and forests (Wald)
So much of this text is about subject and object, lover and beloved. However, we begin with the the speaker AS object, even as an object being yanked and pulled out of doors. There is considerable dead weight and resistance here as the speaker describes the experience of being prized out of his chair. Winches, screws and pulleys seem to be involved. Is it one of those chairs where you turn a handle for it to push up your bottom? Perhaps the screw is some sort of starter handle (or the sort of tug used to launch a glider) because by the middle of the first stanza the speaker seems to be ready to take off.
Once the speaker starts referring to himself as subject rather than object (ich, not mich or mir) he is away. He is part of a cloud wrapping itself around a projecting cliff, he joins a flock of ravens as they sway in coordinated aerobatics, he keeps a look out from above for his beloved coming out and then sings as a bird in the woods before transforming himself into a star (both close and distant) before falling down at her feet. These motions seem to be closest to those of a kite, which similarly needs to be pulled and yanked to get going before soaring and swerving in unpredictable and thrilling ways.
So what is the answer to the initital question? What is it that is tugging at his heart? If he is a kite, who is yanking the string? It can only be longing, unconsummated desire. All of the experiences described (being part of the cloud, joining the flock of birds, singing as a bird, twinkling as a star) are desires, metaphors for a sort of belonging or communication which is currently out of reach.
Cloud-topped heights usually appear in poetry as a fairly literal image of inaccessibility, but here the sight of clouds moving in on a mountain top and wrapping themselves around it becomes a symbol of the lover being transformed in the process of uniting with the unchanging beloved. This leads directly to the idea of the loss of the individual in the collective as the speaker’s spirit joins the aeronautical display of the ravens.
The next two images (the singing bird and the star) choose to emphasise the individual rather than the group (the flock or the constellation), and the aim here is to fantasise about communicating with the love object. As a bird singing in the woods he will have the opportunity to be heard clearly. She will actually stop and pay attention to him. She will then recognise the beauty of his message and the fact that it is directed at her. Similarly, as a twinkling star he will be able to stop her in her tracks (the path has become very dark and overgrown by this point, so it is just to say believable that she will notice only one star if it is shining through a gap in the bushes) and astonish her with the intensity of what she is looking at.
He seems to know that she has not paid attention to him yet. She has not even noticed him. He is a single star in the night sky, he is a single bird in an ever moving flock, he is part of a cloud, not standing out in any way. The idea that he could actually shine or sing in a way that she will notice is for the birds.
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Original Spelling and notes on the text Sehnsucht Was zieht mir das Herz so? Was zieht mich hinaus? Und windet und schraubt mich Aus Zimmer und Haus? Wie dort sich die Wolken Am1 Felsen verziehn! Da möcht ich hinüber, Da möcht ich wohl hin! Nun wiegt sich der Raben Geselliger Flug; Ich mische mich drunter Und folge dem Zug. Und Berg und Gemäuer Umfittigen wir; Sie weilet da drunten; Ich spähe nach ihr. Da kommt sie und wandelt; Ich eile sobald, Ein singender Vogel, Im2 buschigten Wald. Sie weilet und horchet Und lächelt mit sich: "Er singet so lieblich Und singt es an mich." Die scheidende Sonne Verguldet die Höh'n; Die sinnende Schöne, Sie läßt es geschehn. Sie wandelt am Bache Die Wiesen entlang, Und finster und finstrer Umschlingt sich der Gang; Auf einmal erschein' ich, Ein blinkender Stern. "Was glänzet da droben, So nah und so fern?" Und hast du mit Staunen Das Leuchten erblickt; Ich lieg dir zu Füßen, Da bin ich beglückt! 1 Schubert changed 'Um' (around) to 'Am' (at, over) 2 Schubert changed 'Zum' (at) to 'Im' (in)
Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Schubert’s source, Goethe’s sämmtliche Schriften. Siebenter Band. / Gedichte von Goethe. Erster Theil. Lyrische Gedichte. Wien, 1810. Verlegt bey Anton Strauß. In Commission bey Geistinger. pages 79-80; with Goethe’s Werke, Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand, Erster Band, Stuttgart und Tübingen, in der J.G.Cottaschen Buchhandlung, 1827, pages 99-100, and with Taschenbuch auf das Jahr 1804, Herausgegeben von Wieland und Goethe, Tübingen, in der Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, pages 117-119
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 79 [93 von 418] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ163965701