To Mignon
(Poet's title: An Mignon)
Set by Schubert:
D 161
[February 27, 1815]
Part of Goethe: The April 1816 collection sent to Goethe
Über Tal und Fluss getragen,
Ziehet rein der Sonne Wagen.
Ach! sie regt in ihrem Lauf,
So wie deine, meine Schmerzen,
Tief im Herzen,
Immer morgens wieder auf.
Kaum will mir die Nacht noch frommen,
Denn die Träume selber kommen
Nun in trauriger Gestalt,
Und ich fühle dieser Schmerzen,
Still im Herzen,
Heimlich bildende Gewalt.
Schon seit manchen schönen Jahren
Seh ich unten Schiffe fahren;
Jedes kommt an seinen Ort;
Aber, ach! die steten Schmerzen,
Fest im Herzen,
Schwimmen nicht im Strome fort.
Schön in Kleidern muss ich kommen,
Aus dem Schrank sind sie genommen,
Weil es heute Festtag ist;
Niemand ahnet, dass von Schmerzen
Herz im Herzen
Grimmig mir zerrissen ist.
Heimlich muss ich immer weinen,
Aber freundlich kann ich scheinen
Und sogar gesund und rot;
Wären tödlich diese Schmerzen
Meinem Herzen,
Ach! schon lange wär ich tot.
Carried over valley and river,
The chariot of the sun is pulled along.
Oh, as it goes past it stirs up
Pain for both you and me,
Deep in the heart,
Always stirred up again each morning.
Night will barely console me
For even dreams come
Only in a sad form,
And I feel this pain,
Silent in the heart,
Secret, growing ever more powerful.
For many lovely years now
I have looked down watching the ships go by,
Each one comes to its place;
But oh, the same pains
Stuck firm in the heart,
Refuse to swim out into the stream.
I have to come dressed up nicely,
In clothes taken from the wardrobe,
Because today it is a feast day;
Nobody realises that pain
In my heart of hearts
Is angrily tearing me up.
I have to weep in secret all the time,
But I can appear friendly
And even healthy and ruddy;
If this pain were lethal
In my heart
Oh, I would have died long ago.
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:
Boats Breaking and shattering Carts and chariots Clothes Dreams Hearts Morning and morning songs Night and the moon Red and purple Rivers (Fluß) Rivers (Strom) The sun Swimming Tears and crying Valleys Wheels
In what sense this lyric is addressed ‘to Mignon’ is unclear. It was written a year after Goethe had completed and published ‘Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre’, the novel in which the character of Mignon (and her famous songs) had featured, and a decade before he started working on its sequel, ‘Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre’. Since Goethe had killed Mignon off at the end of the first novel (she dies from her longing for both Italy and Wilhelm) he was perhaps continuing his own farewell to the character. The reference to having to wear fine clothes on a feast day and smile in company suggests that it might be written in his own persona; this is a privy councillor who has to bear inner and outer cares without any outward signs of disturbance.
However, it is also possible to read the text as if it is written from a woman’s point of view. Like the famous woman at the window in Friedrich’s painting (1822), she is restricted to watching the boats come in and has no possibility of swimming off or going out with the tide. Both the man who is so involved in society that he cannot express his own emotions and the woman who is so excluded from it that she is unable to connect share in the frustration and pain that killed the intersex Mignon. Unlike Mignon, though, the persona of this poem is not going to die; if the pain were fatal s/he would already be dead.
The pain is renewed each morning. The very regularity of the rising sun is part of the agony, for there can be no end point. The cycle never ends, and night offers no respite or escape since what has to be repressed each day oozes out in bad dreams. However awful the pressure that builds up, it is never enough to offer the hope of death and an end to the cycle.
The form of the poem embodies this point. Each strophe is like an uneven wheel turning on the axle of the repeated words Shmerzen / Herzen (the cc in the aabccb rhyme scheme). Each turn of the wheel (every day, of course, since the wheel is fixed to the chariot of the sun which begins the text) reminds us that Schmerzen and Herzen (pain and heart) are fixed together; if we have a heart it will be torn apart.
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Original Spelling An Mignon Über Thal und Fluß getragen, Ziehet rein der Sonne Wagen. Ach, sie regt in ihrem Lauf, So wie deine, meine Schmerzen, Tief im Herzen, Immer morgens wieder auf. Kaum will mir die Nacht noch frommen, Denn die Träume selber kommen Nun in trauriger Gestalt, Und ich fühle dieser Schmerzen, Still im Herzen, Heimlich bildende Gewalt. Schon seit manchen schönen Jahren Seh' ich unten Schiffe fahren; Jedes kommt an seinen Ort; Aber ach, die steten Schmerzen, Fest im Herzen, Schwimmen nicht im Strome fort. Schön in Kleidern muß ich kommen, Aus dem Schrank sind sie genommen, Weil es heute Festtag ist; Niemand ahndet, daß von Schmerzen Herz im Herzen Grimmig mir zerrissen ist. Heimlich muß ich immer weinen, Aber freundlich kann ich scheinen Und sogar gesund und roth; Wären tödtlich diese Schmerzen Meinem Herzen, Ach, schon lange wär ich todt.
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 81-82; with Goethe’s Werke, Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand, Erster Band, Stuttgart und Tübingen, in der J.G.Cottaschen Buchhandlung, 1827, pages 101-102, and with Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1798, herausgegeben von Schiller. Tübingen, in der J.G.Cottaischen Buchhandlung, pages 179-180.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 81 [95 von 418] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ163965701