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Songs

Songs

Im Treibhaus (1858) WWV 91

Part of a series or song cycle:

Wesendonck Lieder (WWV 91)

Im Treibhaus

Mathilde Wesendonck

Hochgewölbte Blätterkronen,
Baldachine von Smaragd,
Kinder ihr aus fernen Zonen,
Saget mir, warum ihr klagt?
Schweigend neiget ihr die Zweige,
Malet Zeichen in die Luft,
Und der Leiden stummer Zeuge
Steiget aufwärts, süßer Duft.
Weit in sehnendem Verlangen
Breitet ihr die Arme aus
Und umschlinget wahnbefangen
Öder Leere nicht'gen Graus.
Wohl ich weiß es, arme Pflanze:
Ein Geschicke teilen wir,
Ob umstrahlt von Licht und Glanze,
Unsre Heimat is nicht hier!
Und wie froh die Sonne scheidet
Von des Tages leerem Schein,
Hüllet der, der wahrhaft leidet,
Sich in Schweigens Dunkel ein.
Stille wird's, ein säuselnd Weben
Füllet bang den dunklen Raum:
Schwere Tropfen seh' ich schweben
An der Blätter grünem Saum.

In the greenhouse

English Translation © Richard Stokes

High-arching leafy crowns,
Canopies of emerald,
You children who dwell in distant climes,
Tell me, why do you lament?
Silently you bend your branches,
Inscribe your symbols on the air,
And a sweet fragrance rises,
As silent witness to you sorrows.
With longing and desire
You open wide your arms,
And embrace in your delusion
Desolation's awful void.
I am well aware, poor plant;
We both share a single fate,
Though bathed in gleaming light,
Our homeland is not here!
And just as the sun is glad to leave
The empty gleam of day,
The true sufferer veils himself
In the darkness of silence.
It grows quiet, a whirring whisper
Fills the dark room uneasily:
I see heavy droplets hanging
From the green edge of the leaves.

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Composer

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, and conductor. 


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Poet

Mathilde Wesendonck

Mathilde Wesendonck (23 December 1828 – 31 August 1902) was a German poet and author. The words of five of her verses were the basis of her friend Richard Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder. 

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