Heller ward mein inn'res Leben,
Schöner, seit ich dich erkannt,
Seit ein gleiches hohes Streben
Herz mit Herz so eng verband.
Meine Lieder, wie mein Fühlen,
Alles hab' ich dir geweiht.
Nichts konnt' meine Liebe kühlen,
Keine Trennung und kein Leid!
Und doch soll ich dir entsagen,
Dir, mein [heller]1 Lebensstern,
Soll die tiefe Nacht ertragen,
[Dass du mir]2 auf ewig fern!
Nein, ach nein, so darf's nicht werden,
[Nein, ach nein]3, es darf kein Abschied sein.
Ob getrennt, ob [nah]4 auf Erden,
Hier im Herzen bleibst du mein!

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Note to line 14: There is a typo in the published Lang score ("noch" instead of "nah"). This error is not found in her manuscript copy of the song. It has been corrected in more recent publications and above. However, since all the other composers who have set this text got it from Lang's score, the error persists in their settings.

On the Baroni-Cavalcabo score the poet is given as "N. B . . . n. Marie König's song has no poet. Both Lang and Voss give the poet as "A.v.C."

¹ König: "schöner"
² König: "Da ich dir"; Voss: "Dass ich dir"
³ Baroni-Cavalcabo: "Nein"
⁴ Baroni-Cavalcabo, König, Voss: "noch"

Text Authorship:

• by Agnes von Calatin (1813 - 1844) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Julie Baroni-Cavalcabò (1813 - 1887), "Treue Liebe", op. 30 no. 2, published 1846 [ voice and piano ], Wien: A. O. Witzendorf [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Marie Henriette König (1831 - 1850), "Heller ward mein inn'res Leben", op. 4 (Zwei Lieder) no. 1, published 1852 [ voice and piano ], Dresden: Brauer [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Josephine Lang (1815 - 1880), "Ewige Nähe", op. 8 (3 Lieder) no. 3 (1838), published 1838 [ voice and piano ], Wien: Tobias Haslinger [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Charles Voss (1815 - 1882), "Ewige Nähe", op. 53 (Vier Lieder) no. 3, published 1845 [ voice and piano ], Berlin & Posen: Ed. Bote und G. Bock [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• ENG English (Sharon Krebs) (Harald Krebs) , "Eternal nearness", copyright © 2006, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Sharon Krebs [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2006-11-10
Line count: 16
Word count: 89