Song of Orpheus when he went into Hell
(Poet's title: Lied des Orpheus, als er in die Hölle ging)
Set by Schubert:
D 474
[September 1816]
Wälze dich hinweg, du wildes Feuer!
Meine Saiten hat ein Gott gekrönt,
Er, mit welchem jedes Ungeheuer,
Und vielleicht die Hölle sich versöhnt.
Diese Saiten stimmte seine Rechte,
Fürchterliche Schatten, flieht!
Und ihr winselnden Bewohner dieser Nächte,
Horchet auf mein Lied!
Von der Erde, wo die Sonne leuchtet,
Und der stille Mond;
Wo der Tau das junge Moos befeuchtet,
Wo Gesang im grünen Felde wohnt;
Aus der Menschen süßem Vaterlande,
Wo der Himmel euch so frohe Blicke gab,
Ziehen mich die schönsten Bande,
Ziehet mich die Liebe selbst herab.
Meine Klage tönt in eure Klage:
Weit von hier geflohen ist das Glück.
Aber denkt an jene Tage,
Schaut in jene Welt zurück!
Wenn ihr da nur einen Leidenden umarmtet,
O so fühlt die Wollust noch einmal;
Und der Augenblick, in dem ihr euch erbarmtet,
Lindre diese lange Qual.
O ich sehe Tränen fließen!
Durch die Finsternisse bricht
Ein Strahl von Hoffnung, ewig büßen
Lassen euch die guten Götter nicht.
Götter, die für euch die Erde schufen,
Werden aus der tiefen Nacht
Euch in selige Gefilde rufen,
Wo die Tugend unter Rosen lacht.
Roll yourself back, brutal fire!
A god has crowned my strings,
He with whom each monster
And perhaps Hell itself will have to be reconciled.
His right hand tuned these strings:
Fearsome shades, flee!
And you whimpering inhabitants of these nocturnal regions,
Pay attention to my song!
From the Earth, where the sun casts its light,
And the silent moon;
Where the dew dampens the young moss,
Where song lives in the green meadows;
From the sweet fatherland of human beings,
Where heaven cast such happy glances on you,
The most beautiful connections are drawing me,
Love itself is drawing me down.
My laments resound in your laments:
Happiness has fled far from here;
But think of those days,
Look back on that world.
If you ever embraced one suffering person there
Oh just feel the pleasure once more,
And the moment when you took pity on each other
Will soothe this long-lasting torment.
Oh, I can see tears flowing;
Breaking through the darkness
There is now a ray of hope; eternal penance
Is not something the good gods will impose on you!
The gods who made the Earth for you
Will call you out of deep night
And summon you to the Elysian Fields,
Where virtue laughs amidst roses.
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:
Amor / Cupid Arms and embracing The ancient world Bards and minstrels Caves Dew The earth Fields and meadows Fire Green Hope Knots and bonds Laments, elegies and mourning Laughing Left and right Lyres Moss Night and the moon Orpheus Rays of light Roses and pink Shade and shadows Songs (general) Soothing and healing The sun The underworld (Orcus, Hades etc)
Jacobi would have expected his readers to be familiar with Ovid’s version of the story of Orpheus’s descent to the underworld on his mission to bring back Eurydice, who has died as a result of a snake bite. At the beginning of Book X of Metamorphoses Ovid reports Orpheus’s address to Hades (sitting with Persephone) as he enters Hell, and it is this appeal which Jacobi paraphrases in his text:
“O deities of this dark world beneath the earth! this shadowy underworld, to which all mortals must descend! If it can be called lawful, and if you will suffer speech of strict truth (all the winding ways of Falsity forbidden) I come not down here because of curiosity to see the glooms of Tartarus and have no thought to bind or strangle the three necks of the Medusan Monster, vile with snakes. But I have come, because my darling wife stepped on a viper that sent through her veins death-poison, cutting off her coming years. “If able, I would bear it, I do not deny my effort—but the god of Love has conquered me—a god so kindly known in all the upper world. We are not sure he can be known so well in this deep world, but have good reason to conjecture he is not unknown here, and if old report almost forgotten, that you stole your wife is not a fiction, Love united you the same as others. By this Place of Fear this huge void and these vast and silent realms, renew the life-thread of Eurydice. “All things are due to you, and though on earth it happens we may tarry a short while, slowly or swiftly we must go to one abode; and it will be our final home. Long and tenaciously you will possess unquestioned mastery of the human race. She also shall be yours to rule, when full of age she shall have lived the days of her allotted years. So I ask of you possession of her few days as a boon. But if the fates deny to me this prayer for my true wife, my constant mind must hold me always so that I can not return— and you may triumph in the death of two!” from Ovid, Metamorphoses X English translation by Brookes More, Boston 1922
Jacobi’s major change to the speech is that in his text Orpheus is addressing the mortal inhabitants of the underworld rather than the god Hades and his consort (for part of each year) Persephone. In Ovid, Orpheus appeals to Hades’ own experience of love when he abducted Persephone, but in Jacobi the singer tries to tug the heart strings of the forlorn spirits languishing in hell. He does this by referring to the strings (die schönsten Bande) that still bind him to Eurydice. His love for her has pulled him away from all of the delights of earth; what his audience would long to return to he has left voluntarily because of love.
He therefore does not need to name the god who has tuned his strings. Eros / Amor is one way of denoting him, but Orpheus prefers to focus on the god’s power and influence rather than his name or attributes. He is confident that each of the pining spirits will have experienced the power of love. Any genuine connection, any moment of true sympathy in the course of mortal life will surely mean that we cannot be doomed to eternal desolation. Their past experience of love offers a ray of hope for the future.
Yet the ties that bind Orpheus to Eurydice have in fact pulled him down. As any good production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Eurydice makes clear, the story of his descent to the underworld is a way of portraying the experience of loss and the process of mourning. His decision to go in search of the departed beloved dramatises Orpheus’ inner struggle to cope with his loss. Through denial and bargaining (she can return to earth with him if he promises not to look at her, is the deal) he attempts to delay his acceptance of the reality of her death. The bonds of love are not going to draw her back to life, though; they are going to pull him down. Grief is the price we pay for such love.
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Original Spelling Lied des Orpheus, als er in die Hölle ging Wälze dich hinweg, du wildes Feuer! Meine Saiten hat ein Gott gekrönt, Er, mit welchem jedes Ungeheuer, Und vielleicht die Hölle sich versöhnt. Diese Saiten stimmte seine Rechte: Fürchterliche Schatten, flieht! Und ihr winselnden Bewohner dieser Nächte, Horchet auf mein Lied! Von der Erde, wo die Sonne leuchtet, Und der stille Mond; Wo der Thau das junge Mooß befeuchtet, Wo Gesang im grünen Felde wohnt; Aus der Menschen süßem Vaterlande, Wo der Himmel euch so frohe Blicke gab, Ziehen mich die schönsten Bande, Ziehet mich die Liebe selbst herab. Meine Klage tönt in eure Klage: Weit von hier geflohen ist das Glück; Aber denkt an jene Tage, Schaut in jene Welt zurück. Wenn ihr da nur einen Leidenden umarmtet; O so fühlt die Wollust noch einmal, Und der Augenblick, in dem ihr euch erbarmtet, Lindre diese lange Qual. O ich sehe Thränen fließen; Durch die Finsternisse bricht Nun ein Strahl von Hoffnung; ewig büßen Lassen euch die guten Götter nicht! Götter, die für euch die Erde schufen, Werden, aus der tiefen Nacht, Euch in selige Gefilde rufen, Wo die Tugend unter Rosen lacht.
Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Schubert’s source, Gedichte von Johann Georg Jacobi. Erster Theil. Wien, 1816. Bey Ch. Kaulfuß & C. Armbruster (Meisterwerke deutscher Dichter und Prosaisten. Sechzehntes Bändchen), pages 75-76; with Sämtliche Werke, von Johann Georg Jacobi. Dritter Theil. Mit gnädigstem Privilegio. Halberstadt, bey Johann Heinrich Gros, Königl. Preuß. privilegierten Buchhändler. 1774, pages 262-263; and with Musen-Almanach A. MDCCLXXI [1771] Göttingen, bey J. C. Dieterich, pages 163-165.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 75 [95 von 254] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ157693008