Der Sänger, D 149

The singer

(Poet's title: Der Sänger)

Part of  Goethe: The second collection intended for Goethe  Goethe: Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre 

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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These verses are the first time that readers of Goethe’s novel hear the old harper’s voice (and they are the first appearance of verse in the otherwise prose narrative), so it is fitting that this is a ballad about a singer, albeit one in a more ‘romantic’ setting than the context in which it is sung. In the harper’s ‘romance’ the bard is called into a medieval hall and a royal court, whereas he himself has been invited to sing in a sort of coaching inn to perform before a group of strolling players.

Goethe relates how the minstrel began to play the harp, but was urged by Wilhelm Meister to sing as well. After an initial group of songs about bards and minstrelsy, the harper then sang in praise of social life and unity. There was then a change of tone as he sang about the dangers of selfishness and division. This was followed by songs about peacemakers and the meeting again of souls that had been separated. In response to this moving performance Wilhelm then invited the harper to ask for anything. The harper’s response was simply to sing this song, Der Sänger, about a singer who turns down the offer of a golden chain and requests only a glass of wine.

Since the singer says that the chain would be more suitable for knights or a Chancellor, it was presumbably more a chain of office than a simple necklace. In turning it down, he appears to be refusing an implicit invitation to join the King’s court and take on the role of Court Minstrel or Poet Laureate. He explicitly states that possessing such a chain would represent a burden. Despite being made of gold, this chain is a shackle, and the singer does not want to be tied.

This singer has a clear understanding of how feudalism works. A royal gift comes along with a set of obligations; it is purchase in the guise of a gracious offering. The singer’s seemingly flattering comments to the court must therefore be ironical. When he says that he is so overwhelmed by the splendour around him that he has to close his eyes, we can perhaps conclude that the lords and ladies are not as stellar as they would like to think. When he comments on the knights who shatter swords, and the Chancellor weighed down with burdens, we are surely expected to see behind the bluster and swagger; it is all pretence and pomposity.

Even the King himself is not as royal as he wants to sound. In his first utterance he gives the game away: “What can I hear? . . Let the song be sung before Our ears!” It takes him a while to remember that he is supposed to use the plural, the royal We. He soon forgets again, though: “Let the old man come in to me!” (Laßt mir herein den Alten!). This monarch who can barely control his own thoughts is much less adept at courtly language and behaviour than is a common singer brought in from the street.

If the singer was so skilled at dealing with (and escaping from) this assembly of nobles and princes, we can only imagine how effective he was as a performer. There is something about his singing and playing that prompts a king to get the busker out in the street to be called in to give a Royal Command Performance. That performance in turn elicits a desire to bestow royal favour. It is therefore slightly odd that we are told nothing about the song itself.

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Original Spelling

Der Sänger

Was hör' ich draußen vor dem Thor,
Was auf der Brücke schallen?
Laß den Gesang vor unserm Ohr
Im Saale widerhallen!
Der König sprachs, der Page lief;
Der Page kam, der König rief:
Laßt mir herein den Alten!

Gegrüßet seyd mir, edle Herrn,
Gegrüßt ihr schöne Damen!
Welch' reicher Himmel! Stern bei Stern!
Wer kennet ihre Namen?
Im Saal voll Pracht und Herrlichkeit
Schließt, Augen, euch, hier ist nicht Zeit,
Sich staunend zu ergötzen.

Der Sänger drückt' die Augen ein,
Und schlug in vollen Tönen:
Die Ritter schauten muthig drein,
Und in den Schooß die Schönen.
Der König, dem es wohlgefiel,
Ließ, ihn zu ehren für sein Spiel,
Eine goldne Kette holen.

Die goldne Kette gib mir nicht,
Die Kette gib den Rittern,
Vor deren kühnem Angesicht
Der Feinde Lanzen splittern;
Gib sie dem Kanzler, den du hast,
Und laß ihn noch die goldne Last
Zu andern Lasten tragen.

Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt,
Der in den Zweigen wohnet;
Das Lied, das aus der Kehle dringt,
Ist Lohn, der reichlich lohnet.
Doch darf ich bitten, bitt' ich eins:
Laß mir den besten Becher Weins
In purem Golde reichen.

Er setzt' ihn an, er trank ihn aus:
O Trank voll süßer Labe!
O, wohl dem hochbeglückten Haus,
Wo das ist kleine Gabe!
Ergeht's euch wohl, so denkt an mich,
Und danket Gott so warm, als ich
Für diesen Trunk euch danke.

Confirmed by Peter Rastl with Schubert’s probable 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 274-275; with Goethe’s Werke, Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand, Erster Band, Stuttgart und Tübingen, in der J.G.Cottaschen Buchhandlung, 1827, pages 178-179; and with Göthe’s neue Schriften. Siebenter Band. Berlin. Bei Johann Friedrich Unger. 1800, pages 39-41.

A variant of this poem is incorporated in Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The poem appears there in Book 2, Chapter 11.

For Carlyle’s English translation of all of Book II, Chapter 11 of Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre go to: http://www.bartleby.com/314/211.html

To see an early edition of the poem, go to page 274 [288 von  418] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ163965701