Wanderer's Nightsong
"Wanderer's Nightsong" (original German title: "Script error: No such module "Lang".") is the title of two poems by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Written in 1776 ("Script error: No such module "Lang".") and in 1780 ("Script error: No such module "Lang"."), they are among Goethe's most famous works. Both were first edited together in his 1815 Works Vol. I with the headings "Script error: No such module "Lang"." and "Script error: No such module "Lang"." ("Another one"). The second poem was set by Schumann in his Lieder und Gesänge, Vol. IV, Op. 96. Both poems were set by Franz Schubert and catalogued as D 224 and D 768.
Wanderer's Nightsong I
The manuscript of "Wanderer's Nightsong" ("Script error: No such module "Lang".") was among Goethe's letters to his friend Charlotte von Stein and bears the signature "At the slope of Ettersberg, on 12 Feb. 76"; supposedly it was written under the tree later called the Goethe Oak.[1] One translation is by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
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Thou that from the heavens art, |
Franz Schubert set the poem to music in 1815 (as No.3 in his Op.4, D.224), changing "stillest" and "füllest" to "stillst" and "füllst," and, more significantly, "Erquickung" (refreshment) to "Entzückung" (delight).
Wanderer's Nightsong II
Wanderer's Nightsong II ("Script error: No such module "Lang".") is often considered the perhaps most perfect lyric in the German language.[3] Goethe probably wrote it on the evening of September 6, 1780, onto the wall of a wooden gamekeeper lodge on top of the Kickelhahn mountain near Ilmenau where he, according to a letter to Charlotte von Stein, spent the night.[4]
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O'er all the hilltops |
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Goethe's friend Karl Ludwig von Knebel mentioned the writing in his diary, it is also documented in transcriptions by Johann Gottfried Herder and Luise von Göchhausen. It was first published—without authorization—by August Adolph von Hennings in 1800 and again by August von Kotzebue in 1803. An English version appeared in the Monthly Magazine in February 1801.[5] The second poem was also set to music by Franz Schubert, in 1823, Op. 96 No. 3, D. 768, it has been sung by sopranos, tenors and baritones, most notably by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. As Goethe wrote to Carl Friedrich Zelter, he revisited the cabin more than 50 years later on August 27, 1831, about six months before his death. The poet recognised his wall-writing and reportedly broke down in tears. After 1831 the handwritten text vanished, and has not been preserved.
In popular culture
The mountain hut had already become famous as "Goethe's Cabin" by the late 1830s. Burnt down in 1870, it was rebuilt four years later. Parodies of "Script error: No such module "Lang"." were written by Christian Morgenstern ("Fisches Nachtgesang"), Joachim Ringelnatz ("Abendgebet einer erkälteten Negerin", lines 17–20), Karl Kraus ("Wanderers Schlachtlied" from The Last Days of Mankind), and Bertolt Brecht ("Liturgie vom Hauch"). A computational linguistics processing of the poem was the topic of the 1968 radio drama Die Maschine by Georges Perec and Template:Ill.[6] It is also cited in Daniel Kehlmann's 2005 novel Measuring the World,[7] in Milan Kundera's novel Immortality,Script error: No such module "Unsubst". and in Walter Moers' novel The City of Dreaming Books.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
John Ottman's musical score for Bryan Singer's 2008 film Valkyrie contains a requiem-like piece for soprano and chorus in the closing credits with "Script error: No such module "Lang"." as lyrics. In the film's context, the poem serves as a lament on the miscarried assassination on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944, mourns the proximate death of most of the assassins, and with the last two lines forecasts the demise of those whom they failed to kill.[8]
References
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ cf. Alan P. Cottrell: Goethe's view of evil and the search for a new image of man in our time (1982) p. 35
- ↑ Template:Interlanguage link, in: Goethes Werke (Hamburger Ausgabe) vol. 1, 16th ed. 1996, p. 555
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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External links
- [1] Adaptation in English of "Wandrers Nachtlied II"
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