The dream
(Poet's title: Der Traum)
Set by Schubert:
D 213
[June 17, 1815]
Mir träumt’, ich war ein Vögelein
Und flog auf ihren Schoß;
Und zupft’ ihr, um nicht lass zu sein,
Die Busenschleifen los;
Und flog mit gaukelhaftem Flug
Dann auf die weiße Hand,
Dann wieder auf das Busentuch
Und pickt’ am roten Band.
Dann schwebt’ ich auf ihr blondes Haar,
Und zwitscherte vor Lust,
Und ruhte, wann ich müde war,
An ihrer weißen Brust.
Kein Veilchenbett im Paradies
Geht diesem Lager vor.
Wie schlief sich´s da so süß, so süß,
An ihres Busens Flor!
Sie spielte, wie ich tiefer sank,
Mit leisem Fingerschlag,
Der mir durch Leib und Leben drang,
Mich frohen Schlummrer wach;
Sah mich so wunderfreundlich an
Und bot den Mund mir dar:
Dass ich es nicht beschreiben kann,
Wie froh, wie froh ich war.
Da trippelt’ ich auf einem Bein
Und hatte so mein Spiel
Und spielt’ ihr mit dem Flügelein
Die rote Wange kühl.
Doch ach! kein Erdenglück besteht,
Tag sei es oder Nacht!
Schnell war mein süßer Traum verweht,
Und ich war aufgewacht.
I dreamt that I was a little bird
And I flew into her lap,
And in order to keep myself busy I tugged
And loosened the bows on her breast,
And I flew, fluttering my way,
Onto her white hand,
Then back again to the bodice,
And I picked again at the red ribbon.
Then I glided on to her blonde hair
And twittered with pleasure,
And, when I was tired, I rested
On her white breast.
No bed of violets in paradise
Is superior to that camp.
You can sleep so sweetly, so sweetly,
On the muslin at her breast!
As I sank deeper, she played,
With her finger tapping lightly,
Which penetrated my body and my life,
And woke me up from my pleasant sleep.
She looked at me, so amazingly friendly,
And offered her mouth to me
In such a way that there is no describing
How delighted, how delighted I was.
Then I toddled off to her leg
And what a game I played,
And I played with her using my little wings
To cool her red cheek.
But oh! No earthly happiness lasts,
Whether by day or night!
My sweet dream was quickly blown away
And I was awake.
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 Cheeks Chest / breast Clothes Dreams Fingers Flying, soaring and gliding Games and play Gazes, glimpses and glances Hair Hands Heads Heaven, the sky Kissing Knots and bonds Lap, womb (Schoß) Legs Mouths Red and purple Rest Sleep Sweetness Violets Waking up White Wings
This poem captures one of the great paradoxes of dreams: they are so vivid and so unreal at the same time. The most convincing dreams are often those when we tell ourselves that things are so odd that we must be dreaming but then we ‘wake up’ in our dream to realise that it is all really happening. Of course, when we really do wake up the shock and disbelief is all the greater. Hölty evokes this sensation by having the narrator fall asleep and reawaken in the course of the dream (stanza 3), and by ending the text as a whole with the simple, factual statement ‘ich war aufgewacht’ (I was awake / I woke up).
The poet uses vivid detail to produce a convincingly dream-like effect. There is so much detail, in fact, that we know precisely what the young woman was wearing. Covering her breast was some fine transparent or lace-like material. Over this was a bodice (violet or embroidered with violets?) tied up (in bows) with red ribbons or laces. The red of the clothing then becomes linked in the dreamer’s fantasy with the contrasting white of her skin and hair and the complementary red of her flushed cheeks and lips. It is not just her appearance that brings her to life. She taps her finger and becomes playful. As in so many such dreams she becomes aroused and initiates intimacy.
This brings us to the second feature which makes the text such an accurate portrayal of a dream, not detail and precision but ambiguity and confusion. The red of the ribbon is not just about the specific wavelength of light; it is linked to the red of the woman’s body itself. She offers her mouth, but the lips promise other lips. The rhythmic tapping of her finger is experienced as penetration. Although Sigmund Freund was careful to point out that in dreams ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’, we all know that dream images can be slippery and malleable.
Hölty reinforces this effect of ambiguity by choosing a number of words that have a number of possible meanings, even within the context of this poem[1]. For example, the German word ‘Schoß’ can mean either ‘lap’ or ‘womb’, and the context usually clarifies which. However, the context of an erotic dream allows no such clarity. ‘Flor’ could be ‘flora’ (e.g. a bed of flowers) or a ‘veil’. In the context of a light covering of the breast (perhaps with a pattern of flowers) the ambiguity is not resolved. The verb ‘gaukeln’ can refer to the ‘fluttering’ of birds or insects but it could also relate to ‘Gaukelei’, ‘trickery’ or ‘illusion’. The whole text, with a bird flitting from one part of a woman’s body to another like an insect flitting from flower to flower, is itself just an illusion. When he wakes up, there is no bird, no young woman. He is all of a flutter.
[1] This is the third of Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity.
Original Spelling Der Traum Mir träumt', ich war ein Vögelein, Und flog auf ihren Schooß, Und zupft' ihr, um nicht laß zu seyn, Die Busenschleifen los. Und flog, mit gaukelhaftem Flug, Dann auf die weiße Hand, Dann wieder auf das Busentuch, Und pickt' am rothen Band. Dann schwebt' ich auf ihr blondes Haar, Und zwitscherte vor Lust, Und ruhte, wann ich müde war, An ihrer weißen Brust. Kein Veilchenbett´ im Paradies Geht diesem Lager vor. Wie schlief sichs da so süß, so süß, An ihres Busens Flor! Sie spielte, wie ich tiefer sank, Mit leisem Fingerschlag, Der mir durch Leib und Leben drang, Mich frohen Schlummrer wach; Sah mich so wunderfreundlich an, Und bot den Mund mir dar, Daß ich es nicht beschreiben kann, Wie froh, wie froh ich war. Da trippelt' ich auf einem Bein, Und hatte so mein Spiel, Und spielt' ihr mit dem Flügelein Die rothe Wange kühl. Doch ach! kein Erdenglück besteht, Tag sei es oder Nacht! Schnell war mein süßer Traum verweht, Und ich war aufgewacht.
Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Schubert’s source, Gedichte von L. H. Ch. Hölty. Neu besorgt und vermehrt von Johann Heinrich Voß. Wien, 1815. Bey Chr. Kaulfuß und C. Armbruster. Gedruckt bey Anton Strauß. Meisterwerke deutscher Dichter und Prosaisten. Drittes Bändchen. pages 39-40; with Poetische Blumenlese Für das Jahr 1776. Von den Verfassern der bisherigen Göttinger Blumenlese, nebst einem Anhange die Freymaurerey betreffend; Herausgegeben von J.H. Voß. Lauenburg, gedruckt bey Johann Georg Berenberg, pages 230-231; with Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty’s Sämtliche Werke kritisch und chronologisch herausgegeben von Wilhelm Michael, Erster Band, Weimar, Gesellschaft der Bibliophilen, 1914, pages 180-181; with Gedichte von Ludewig Heinrich Christoph Hölty. Nebst Briefen des Dichters herausgegeben von Karl Halm. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1869, pages 35-36; and with Gedichte von Ludewig Heinrich Christoph Hölty. Besorgt durch seine Freunde Friederich Leopold Grafen zu Stolberg und Johann Heinrich Voß. Hamburg, bei Carl Ernst Bohn. 1783, pages 105-106.
First published in the Hamburger Musenalmanach 1776 by Voß with the original title “Ballade”. Voß subsequently changed the title into “Der Traum” in his editions of Hölty’s collected poems.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 39 [117 von 300] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ15769170X