Close to the beloved
(Poet's title: Nähe des Geliebten)
Set by Schubert:
D 162
[February 27, 1815]
Part of Goethe: The April 1816 collection sent to Goethe
Ich denke dein, wenn mir der Sonne Schimmer
Vom Meere strahlt;
Ich denke dein, wenn sich des Mondes Flimmer
In Quellen malt.
Ich sehe dich, wenn auf dem fernen Wege
Der Staub sich hebt,
In tiefer Nacht, wenn auf dem schmalen Stege
Der Wandrer bebt.
Ich höre dich, wenn dort mit dumpfem Rauschen
Die Welle steigt.
Im stillen Hain da geh ich oft zu lauschen,
Wenn alles schweigt.
Ich bin bei dir, du seist auch noch so ferne,
Du bist mir nah;
Die Sonne sinkt, es leuchten mir die Sterne,
O, wärst du da!
I think of you when I see the sun gleaming up at me,
Shining from the sea;
I think of you when the flickering of the moon
Is reflected in fountains.
I see you, when, on distant paths
The dust rises up;
In the depths of the night, when on the narrow footbridge
The traveller trembles.
I hear you, when over there with a muffled roar
The wave soars up.
I often go into the quiet grove to listen
When everything has fallen silent.
I am with you, however far away you are.
You are close to me!
The sun is sinking, the stars are offering me their light.
Oh, if only you were here!
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:
Bridges Dust Evening and the setting sun Here and there Listening Narrow and wide Near and far Night and the moon Noise and silence Paths Pictures and paintings The sea Springs, sources and fountains Stars The sun Walking and wandering Waves – Welle Woods – groves and clumps of trees (Hain)
In April 1795 Goethe attended a musical evening in Jena at the home of Gottfried Hufeland, a Law Professor, whose wife, Wilhelmine, sang a setting of a poem by Friedricke Brun (1765 – 1835). At the piano was an Englishman of Huguenot heritage, Johann Friedrich La Trobe, who had met the composer of the song, Carl Friedrich Zelter, in Berlin. Goethe was entranced by the music and decided to modify Brun’s words, rewriting them so that they could be sung to the same music.
Friedricke Brun:
Ich denke dein, wenn sich im Blüthenregen
Der Frühling malt,
Und wenn des Sommers mild gereifter Segen
In Ähren strahlt.
Ich denke dein, wenn sich das Weltmeer tönend
Gen Himmel hebt,
Und vor der Wogen Wuth das Ufer stöhnend
Zurücke bebt.
Dein denk´ich, wenn der junge Tag sich golden
Der See enthebt,
An neugebornen zarten Blumendolden
Der Frühtau schwebt.
Ich denke dein, wenn sich der Abend röthend
Im Hain verliert,
Und Philomelens Klage leise flötend
Die Seele rührt.
Dein denk´ich, wenn im bunten Blätterkranze
Der Herbst uns grüßt;
Dein, wenn, in seines Schneegewandes Glanze,
Das Jahr sich schließt.
Am Hainquell, ach! im leichten Erlenschatten
Winkt mir dein Bild!
Schnell ist der Wald, schnell sind die Blumenmatten
Mit Glanz erfüllt.
Beim trüben Lampenschein, im bittern Leiden
Gedacht’ ich dein!
Die bange Seele flehte, nah am Scheiden:
Gedenke mein!
Ich denke dein, bis wehende Cypressen
Mein Grab umziehn,
Und auch in Lethe´s Strom soll unvergessen
Dein Name blühn!
English translation of Brun:
I think of you when in showers of blossom
Spring is depicted,
And when the gently ripened blessing of summer
Shines in the ears of corn.
I think of you when the resonant ocean
Rises up towards the sky,
And before the rage of the waves the shore staggers
Backwards groaning.
It is you I think of, when the young day
Turns the sea golden,
From delicate new born flower stalks
The early dew is hanging.
I think of you, when the blushing evening gets
Lost in the grove,
And the soft warbling of Philomel’s lament
Stirs the soul.
It is you I think of, when in a bright wreath of leaves
We are greeted by autumn;
You, when, in the brightness of its snow garments,
The year shuts down.
In the grove by the spring, oh, in the soft shadows of the Alders,
Your image waves to me!
The wood and the flowering meadows are both quickly
Filled up with a glow.
In the cloudy lamplight and in painful suffering
I thought of you!
The fearful soul, on the point of departure, begged,
‘Think of me!’
I will think of you, until wafting Cypresses
Surround my grave,
And even in Lethe’s waters your name will not be forgotten,
Your name will blossom!
Goethe’s re-writing of Brun’s poem narrows the focus and gives up any attempt to embrace a full range of experience. Where Brun is careful to include a reference to different times of the day, to each of the four seasons and to end with a reference to the grave, Goethe selects specific images to hint at this totality.
Stanza 1 uses the idea of the reflection of the sun and moon in water (selecting the sea and a simple spring to stand in for all examples of the element). ‘Reflection’ is linked with ‘thinking’; the poet’s mind acts like water – when struck by the idea of the beloved it gleams in response.
This leads to stanza 2, which is unified by things that strike the eye. Both images here relate to travel, and both are rather unclear visions of what is going on in the distance. The rising dust on the distant tracks is only indirect evidence of people travelling, and the specific wanderer staggering over a narrow footbridge is perceived in the depth of the night. Despite the obstructions, the poet appears to have direct access to (thoughts of) the distant beloved.
We turn from sight to sound in stanza three. Both in the roar of the water and the silence of the woods the inner voice of the beloved can somehow be heard. Just as sight requires reflection (which means that distance is necessary in order for things to be perceived as present), sound involves resonance, transmission through a medium that necessarily separates the source of the sound from the hearer.
The final stanza picks up on this paradox. The closer the beloved seems, the more acutely s/he is missed. “If only you were here.”
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Original Spelling and notes on the text Nähe des Geliebten Ich denke dein, wenn mir der Sonne Schimmer Vom Meere strahlt; Ich denke dein, wenn sich des Mondes Flimmer1 In Quellen mahlt. Ich sehe dich, wenn auf dem fernen Wege Der Staub sich hebt; In tiefer Nacht, wenn auf dem schmalen Stege2 Der Wandrer bebt. Ich höre dich, wenn dort mit dumpfem Rauschen Die Welle steigt. Im stillen Hain, da3 geh' ich oft zu lauschen, Wenn alles schweigt. Ich bin bei dir, du seyst auch noch so ferne. Du bist mir nah! Die Sonne sinkt, es leuchten mir4 die Sterne. O wärst du da! 1 Schubert (almost certainly by mistake) wrote 'Schimmer' not 'Flimmer' here. 2 Schubert (almost certainly by mistake) wrote 'Wege' not 'Stege' here. 3 Schubert changed 'Haine' to 'Hain, da' 4 Schubert changed 'bald leuchten mir die Sterne' (the stars will soon be offering me their light) to 'es leuchten mir die Sterne' (the stars are offering me their light)
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. page 30; with Goethe’s Werke, Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand, Erster Band, Stuttgart und Tübingen, in der J.G.Cottaschen Buchhandlung, 1827, page 65, and with Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1796, herausgegeben von Schiller. Neustrelitz, bei dem Hofbuchhändler Michaelis, page 5.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 30 [44 von 418] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ163965701