Greetings from my sister
(Poet's title: Schwestergruß)
Set by Schubert:
D 762
[early November 1822]
Im Mondenschein
Wall ich auf und ab,
Seh Todtenbein’
Und stilles Grab.
In Geisterhauch
Vorüber schwebt’s,
Wie Flamm und Rauch,
Vorüber bebt’s; –
Aus Nebeltrug
Steigt eine Gestalt,
Ohn’ Sünd und Lug
Vorüber wallt,
Das Aug so blau,
Der Blick so groß,
Wie in Himmelsau,
Wie in Gottes Schoß,
Ein weiß Gewand
Bedeckt das Bild,
In zarter Hand
Eine Lilie quillt,
In Geisterhauch
Sie zu mir spricht:
»Ich wandre schon
Im reinen Licht,
Seh Mond und Sonn
Zu meinem Fuß,
Und leb in Wonn,
In Engelskuss;
Und all die Lust,
Die ich empfind,
Nicht deine Brust
Kennt, Menschenkind,
Wenn du nicht lasst
Den Erdengott,
Bevor dich fasst
Der grause Tod.«
So tönt die Luft,
So saust der Wind,
Zu den Sternen ruft
Das Himmelskind,
Und eh sie flieht,
Die weiß’ Gestalt,
In frischer Blüt’
Sie sich entfalt’,
In reiner Flamm
Schwebt sie empor
Ohne Schmerz und Harm
Zu der Engel Chor.
Die Nacht verhüllt
Den heil’gen Ort,
Von Gott erfüllt
Sing ich das Wort.
In the moonlight
I process up and down,
I can see the bones of the dead
And quiet graves.
With the breath of a spirit
Something passes by me,
Like flame and smoke,
Something trembles ahead of me;
Appearing to emerge from the mist
A form climbs out,
Without sin or dishonesty
It processes in front of me,
The eye so blue,
The gaze so wide,
As if in a heavenly meadow,
As if in God’s lap,
A white garment
Covers the image,
From her gentle hand
Emerges a lily,
With the breath of a spirit
She speaks to me:
“I am already wandering
In pure light,
I can see the moon and the sun
Beneath my feet,
And I live in bliss,
Kissed by angels;
And all the pleasure
Which I experience
Is something that your breast cannot
Know, you human child!
If you do not leave behind
The god of earth
Before you are captured
By fearful death.”
Such is the sound of the air,
Such is the whirling of the wind
That she seems to be calling to the stars,
That child of heaven,
And before she departs
The white form
Takes fresh blossoms
And folds herself in them:
Into pure flames
She glides upwards,
Without pain or grief,
Towards the angelic choir.
Night covers
The sacred spot,
Filled with God
I sing the Word.
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.
☙
Themes and images in this text:
Angels Blue Breath and breathing Brothers and sisters Detours and delusions Eyes Fire Flowers Ghosts and spirits Graves and burials Greetings Heaven, the sky Heavenly choir Light Lilies Mist and fog Night and the moon Stars Walking and wandering White
Sybilla von Bruchmann, the poet’s sister, died on 18th July 1820. The experience in the graveyard recounted in Schwestergruß is impossible to date so precisely. Of course it may not have happened in a specific graveyard on a particular date; it may be a record of an inner spiritual experience, or the poet may have constructed the narrative in order to make points for the survivors to take note of. It could have been intended to offer comfort to the grieving parents and surviving siblings, or a warning to mend their (or more probably just the poet’s own) ways.
In later years Franz Seraph von Bruchmann was a Redemptorist priest who renounced his earlier dalliance with anti-authoritarianism. In March 1820 (when he was a young law student) he had been arrested and his behaviour had been reported to his influential father, the Director of the Austrian National Bank. He also distanced himself from the liberal philosophers, writers and musicians he was so close to at the time of his sister’s death. There are hints in this text that he is already beginning his conversion to his later conservatism. The ‘pure’ figure of his sister comes to him out of ‘deceptive’ mist. It is as if the poet is asserting that his perceptions of the world until this moment had been a delusion. Where liberal thinkers would automatically dismiss the idea of a ghost or an apparition as a mental construct, the result of some sort of illusion, Bruchmann (with his stress on the figure’s purity and clarity) is asserting the reverse: he was confused and deluded in the mists of liberalism and ‘nature religion’ until the reality of his sister’s salvation was revealed to him. The poet has to take his sister’s warning of the need to leave behind ‘the earthly god’ as a genuine voice that will help him save his otherwise doomed soul.
☙
Original Spelling Schwestergruß Im Mondenschein Wall' ich auf und ab, Seh Todtenbein' Und stilles Grab. In Geisterhauch Vorüber schwebt's, Wie Flamm' und Rauch, Vorüber bebt's; - Aus Nebeltrug Steigt eine Gestalt, Ohn' Sünd und Lug Vorüber wallt, Das Aug so blau, Der Blick so groß, Wie in Himmelsau, Wie in Gottes Schoß, Ein weiß Gewand Bedeckt das Bild, In zarter Hand Eine Lilie quillt, In Geisterhauch Sie zu mir spricht: »Ich wandre schon Im reinen Licht, Seh Mond und Sonn' Zu meinem Fuß, Und leb' in Wonn', In Engelskuß; Und all die Lust, Die ich empfind, Nicht deine Brust Kennt, Menschenkind! Wenn du nicht laßt Den Erdengott, Bevor dich faßt Der grause Tod.« So tönt die Luft, So saust der Wind, Zu den Sternen ruft Das Himmelskind, Und eh' sie flieht, Die weiß' Gestalt, In frischer Blüth' Sie sich entfalt': In reiner Flamm' Schwebt sie empor, Ohne Schmerz und Harm, Zu der Engel Chor. Die Nacht verhüllt Den heil'gen Ort, Von Gott erfüllt Sing ich das Wort.
Schubert’s source was Bruchmann’s manuscript.