Ein Stündlein Wohl Vor Tag Derweil ich schlafend lag, Ein Stündlein wohl vor Tag, Sang vor dem Fenster auf dem Baum Ein Schwälblein mir, ich hört es kaum Ein Stündlein wohl vor Tag. "Hör an, was ich dir sag, Dein Schätzlein ich verklag: Derweil ich dieses singen tu Herzt er ein Lieb in guter Ruh, Ein Stündlein wohl vor Tag." O weh! nicht weiter sag! O still! nichts hören mag! Flieg ab, flieg ab von meinem Baum! Ach, Lieb und Treu ist wie ein Traum Ein Stündlein wohl vor Tag. Eduard Mörike 1837 |
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About an Hour before Dawn While I lay sleeping About an hour before dawn A swallow in a tree at my window Sang to me, hardly did I hear it though About an hour before dawn. "Hear this news for you, It is your lover I accuse: For while I wake you with my song His love lies cuddled in his arms About an hour before dawn. " Good grief! Tell no more! Be still! I listen no longer! Fly away, fly off from my tree! Alas, love and trust are but a dream About an hour before dawn. Translation: Charles L. Cingolani |
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The poem is set in the dark of night. Outside the window of her small bedroom a girl hears a bird singing. Shaking off her drowsiness she listens but can hardly make out the bird's strange song. But sShe is disquieted by it. Mörike uses the Sch-Sa-Stü-sounds that imitate the bird's song and s hard sounding end rhyme in introducing the poem. The situation of the waking girl is described with extreme brevity. Is she imaginging the message that the bird speaks: it is urgent and concise. Words of lamentation accusing her mate of being unfaithful and, what is more, that at that very moment he is making love to someone else. In the taut, sing-song rhyming there are no undue explanations, no subjective outpouring of emotion. As if to take the blunt edge off the bird's cruel message there is a conspicuous recurrance of diminutive nouns: Stündlein, Schwälblein Schätzlein. The next to the last verse describes the disastrous state of mind the girl is in. She does not elaborate her situation. By keeping silent she avoids out all feverous emotion. Her patient silence ennobles her. |