Drinking song in winter
(Poet's title: Trinklied im Winter)
Set by Schubert:
D 242
for TTB trio[August 1815]
D deest
[early 1820]
Das Glas gefüllt!
Der Nordwind brüllt;
Die Sonn ist niedergesunken!
Der kalte Bär
Blinkt Frost daher!
Getrunken, Brüder, getrunken!
Die Tannen glühn
Hell im Kamin,
Und knatternd fliegen die Funken!
Der edle Rhein
Gab uns den Wein!
Getrunken, Brüder, getrunken!
Der edle Most
Verscheucht den Frost
Und zaubert Frühling hernieder:
Der Trinker sieht
Den Hain entblüht,
Und Büsche wirbeln ihm Lieder!
Er hört Gesang
Und Harfenklang
Und schwebt durch blühende Lauben;
Ein Mädchenchor
Rauscht schnell hervor
Und bringt ihm goldene Trauben!
Saus immerfort,
O Winternord,
Im schneebelasteten Haine!
Nur streu dein Eis,
O lieber Greis,
In keine Flaschen mit Weine!
Der stolzen Frau
Färb braun und blau
Den Kamm, der adlich ihr schwillet!
Nur musst du fliehn
Den Hermelin,
Der junge Busen verhüllet.
Let the glass be filled!
The north wind is roaring;
The sun has set!
The cold bear
Is a sign that frost is on the way!
Let’s drink, brothers, let’s drink!
The fir tree logs are glowing
Bright in the fireplace,
And the sparks are flying out with a rattle!
The noble Rhine
Gave us this wine!
Let’s drink, brothers, let’s drink!
The noble cordial
Scares off the frost,
And conjures spring down to us:
The drinker sees
The grove in blossom
And bushes sing songs to him as they whirl around!
He hears songs
And the sound of harps
And he floats through flowering foliage;
A girls’ chorus
Rushes forward quickly
And brings him golden grapes!
Keep on roaring,
Oh north winter wind,
In the grove that is weighed down by snow!
So spread your ice,
You dear old man,
But not in any bottles with wine in them!
That proud woman,
She should be black and blue
For getting ideas above her station!
But you have to renounce
The ermine
That covers young breasts!
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:
Chest / breast Cold Drinking Drinking songs Fire Flowers Frost and ice Gold Harps and Aeolian harps Leaves and foliage Magic and enchantment Named rivers North and south Snow Spring (season) Wind Wine and vines Winter Woods – groves and clumps of trees (Hain)
“Wein, Weib und Gesang” (wine, woman and song): they are all here, though the women emerge as fantasy rather than as reality as the song develops and as the wine takes hold. At the outset, things are fairly literal and down to earth: the wind is blowing, the fire is burning, and the lads encourage each other to have a drink. ‘Getrunken’, they say (literally ‘drunk’): [let it be] drunk, down the hatch, bottoms up!
We then move from the level of the descriptive to the evocative, how things appear rather than how they are. The cordial (‘Most’ could refer to any fruit based drink from elderflower wine to cider) is beginning have an effect on the blood and the brain. In the depths of winter, we experience spring. The snow-covered trees are in blossom. Then things start moving. Bushes whirl and suddenly the orchestra strikes up. There are harps, and, from nowhere (as in a Busby Berkeley or a Bollywood musical) there are chorus girls.
It is hardly surprising that the later strophes begin to lack coherence. Things are not totally clear. They know they are up for a fight, particularly with the old guy that is responsible for the cold weather. Let him do his worst (but he had better keep his hands off our drink, or else). Then thoughts turn to women. Some of them think too much of themselves (we have to assume that many of the men singing and drinking along are married and are expressing some frustration with their wives at this point) and deserve to come a cropper. Younger women should take off their fur coverings. We have to imagine the gestures and the whoops of the participants. Hölty (or his publishers) spare us any later, more explicit verses. We know at least that the lads are feeling warmer than when they arrived.
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Original Spelling and note on the text Trinklied im Winter Das Glas gefüllt! Der Nordwind brüllt, Die Sonn' ist niedergesunken! Der kalte Bär Blinkt1 Frost daher! Getrunken, Brüder, getrunken! Die Tannen glüh'n Hell im Kamin, Und knatternd fliegen die Funken! Der edle Rhein Gab uns den Wein! Getrunken, Brüder, getrunken! Der edle Most Verscheucht den Frost, Und zaubert Frühling hernieder; Der Trinker sieht Den Hain entblüht, Und Büsche wirbeln ihm Lieder! Er hört Gesang Und Harfenklang, Und schwebt durch blühende Lauben; Ein Mädchenchor Rauscht schnell hervor, Und bringt ihm goldene Trauben! Saus' immerfort, O Winternord, Im schneebelasteten Haine! Nur streu dein Eis, O lieber Greis, In keine Flaschen mit Weine! Der stolzen Frau Färb braun und blau Den Kamm, der adlich ihr schwillet! Nur musst du fliehn Den Hermelin, Der junge Busen verhüllet! 1 In D deest: bringt
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 178-179; with Poetische Blumenlese für das Jahr 1777. Herausgegeben von Joh. Heinr. Voß. Hamburg, bey Carl Ernst Bohn, pages 120-121; with Gedichte von Ludewig Heinrich Christoph Hölty. Neu besorgt und vermehrt von Johann Heinrich Voss. Hamburg, bei Carl Ernst Bohn. 1804, pages 216-218; and with Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty’s Sämtliche Werke kritisch und chronologisch herausgegeben von Wilhelm Michael, Erster Band, Weimar, Gesellschaft der Bibliophilen, 1914, pages 202-203.
To see an early edition of the text, go to page 178 [256 von 300] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ15769170X