The sorrow of the flowers
(Poet's title: Der Blumen Schmerz)
Set by Schubert:
D 731
[September 1821]
Wie tönt es mir so schaurig,
Des Lenzes erstes Wehn,
Wie dünkt es mir so traurig,
Dass Blumen auferstehn.
In ihrer Mutter Armen
Da ruhten sie so still,
Nun müssen, ach! die Armen
Hervor ans Weltgewühl.
Die zarten Kinder heben
Die Häupter scheu empor:
“Wer rufet uns ins Leben
Aus stiller Nacht hervor?”
Der Lenz mit Zauberworten
Mit Hauchen süßer Lust,
Lockt aus den dunklen Pforten
Sie von der Mutter Brust.
In bräutlich heller Feier
Erscheint der Blumen Pracht,
Doch fern schon ist der Freier,
Wild glüht der Sonne Macht.
Nun künden ihre Düfte,
Dass sie voll Sehnsucht sind,
Was labend würzt die Lüfte,
Es ist der Schmerzen Kind.
Die Kelche sinken nieder,
Sie schauen erdenwärts:
“O Mutter, nimm uns wieder,
Das Leben gibt nur Schmerz.”
Die welken Blätter fallen,
Mild deckt der Schnee sie zu –
Ach Gott! so geht’s mit allem,
Im Grabe nur ist Ruh!
How gruesome it sounds to me,
The first stirring of spring,
How sad it appears to me,
The fact that flowers are coming to life again.
In the arms of their mother
They were resting so quietly there,
Now, poor things, they have to
Go forth towards the tumult of the world.
The tender children raise
Their heads up shyly:
“Who is calling us into life
Out of quiet night?”
Spring, with magic words,
With the breath of sweet pleasure,
Lures them out of the dark gates
From their mother’s breast.
In bright, bridal celebration
The display of flowers appears,
Yet the suitor is far away,
The power of the sun is burning savagely.
Now their scents announce
That they are full of longing.
What adds such spice to the breezes
Derives from their sorrow.
The sepals sink down,
They look towards the earth:
“Oh mother, take us back,
Life has only sorrow to offer.”
The faded petals and leaves fall,
The snow gently covers them –
Oh God, that is how it goes with everything,
Only the grave offers rest.
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:
Arms and embracing Chest / breast Covers and covering Doors and gates The earth Fading and losing colour Flowers Germination, shoots and sprouting Graves and burials Heads Longing and yearning Magic and enchantment Mother and child Near and far Night and the moon Noise and silence Pain Resurrection Smells Snow Spring (season) The sun Weddings
The opening statement is clearly intended to shock. The re-emergence of the spring flowers is not usually thought of as something sad (traurig) let alone gruesome or horrifying (schaurig), so readers might react in different ways. Some people are bound to dismiss the poet as some sort of overgrown teenager who cannot resist taking a perverse position simply to annoy mainstream society. Others might recollect melancholy moods in the past when they might have sympathised with such a viewpoint, but they are now too ‘mature’ to take it very seriously. There may be some readers, though, who find that the poet is speaking for them. Like the flowers, they too have been born into a hostile world where they are buffetted by the elements and all too soon wither and droop.
The experience of emerging from silence and darkness, coming through ‘the dark gateway’ and leaving the mother’s womb is, of course, universal, though perhaps not all of us feel the same sense of shock when we become aware of the tumult that we now have to live amongst in this world. Existentialist philosophers sometimes called this horrifying realisation a sense of ‘Geworfenheit’ (the idea that we ‘have been thrown’ into the world, for no reason). In Mailáth’s poem, the image of the abandoned bride is used to evoke the same sort of sense of gaping emptiness: the flower finds itself dressed in bridal array only to find that the groom, the sun, who has awoken her, is now far off and uninterested. Since her whole identity has been structured around the supposition that she was a bride, she is now nothing. As other Existentialists would have put it, she exists but has no essence.
It might then be better not to exist than to have to cope with life. There have been different types of ‘Nihilism’ which have advocated the advantages of ‘nothing’ over something, and indeed it could be argued that Buddhism, with its idea of the need to escape the cycle of rebirth, is the most developed statement of this way of thinking. Not all Nihilists are miserable, either. Even Raphael Samuel, the anti-natalist from Mumbai, India, who declared in February 2019 that he planned to sue his mother for giving birth to him, has declared, “I wish I was not born. But it’s not that I’m unhappy in my life. My life is good, but I’d rather not be here. You know it’s like there’s a nice room, but I don’t want to be in that room.” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-47154287)
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Original Spelling and notes on the text Der Blumen Schmerz Wie tönt1 es mir so schaurig Des Lenzes erstes Wehn, Wie dünkt es mir so traurig, Daß Blumen auferstehn. In ihrer Mutter Armen Da ruhten sie so still, Nun müssen, ach die Armen! Hervor an's2 Weltgewühl. Die zarten Kinder heben Die Häupter scheu empor: "Wer rufet uns in's Leben Aus stiller Nacht hervor?" Der Lenz mit Zauberworten Mit Hauchen süßer Lust, Lockt aus den dunklen Pforten, Sie von der Mutter Brust. In bräutlich heller Feyer Erscheint der Blumen Pracht, Doch fern schon ist der Freyer, Wild glüht der Sonne Macht. Nun künden ihre Düfte, Daß sie voll Sehnsucht sind Was labend würzt die Lüfte, Es ist der Schmerzen Kind. Die Kelche sinken nieder Sie schauen Erdenwärts: "O Mutter nimm uns wieder Das Leben gibt nur Schmerz." Die welken Blätter fallen, Mild deckt der Schnee sie zu - Ach Gott! so gehts mit allem3, Im Grabe nur ist Ruh. 1 Schubert changed 'ist' (is) to 'tönt' (sounds) 2 Schubert changed 'Herauf in's' (Come up into) to 'Hervor an's' (Go forth towards) 3 Schubert changed 'allen' (everyone) to 'allem' (everything)
Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Gedichte. Von Grafen Johann Mailáth. Wien, 1825. Bey Tendler und v. Manstein, pages 60-61; and with Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode. 1821. Viertes Quartal des sechsten Jahrgangs. Auf Kosten des Herausgebers Johann Schickh. Gedruckt bey Anton Strauß. Musik-Beylage zu No. 147. Sonnabend, den 8. December 1821. Attachment (with Schubert’s song) at page 1240.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 1240 [289 von 376] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ136926809