Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel) is one of the most famous songs that Schubert wrote and he accomplished this feat at the tender age of 17! Listen to the spinning in the piano part and when she sings of his kiss, the movement stops and little by little starts up again, as a spinning wheel would. Goethe, the poet of these words, never heard this song, but I’m quite sure he would have liked it, despite his dictum that the mind’s ear shouldn’t be distracted from the words.
Meine Ruh’ ist hin,
Mein Herz ist schwer,
Ich finde sie nimmer
Und nimmermehr.
Wo ich ihn nicht hab
Ist mir das Grab,
Die ganze Welt
Ist mir vergällt.
Mein armer Kopf
Ist mir verrückt,
Mein armer Sinn
Ist mir zerstückt.
Nach ihm nur schau ich
Zum Fenster hinaus,
Nach ihm nur geh ich
Aus dem Haus.
Sein hoher Gang,
Sein’ edle Gestalt,
Seine Mundes Lächeln,
Seiner Augen Gewalt,
Und seiner Rede
Zauberfluß,
Sein Händedruck,
Und ach, sein Kuß!
Mein Busen drängt sich
Nach ihm hin.
Ach dürft ich fassen
Und halten ihn,
Und küssen ihn,
So wie ich wollt,
An seinen Küssen
Vergehen sollt!
My peace is gone,
My heart is heavy,
I will find it never
and never more.
Where I do not have him,
It is like the grave to me.
The whole world
Is bitter to me.
My poor head
is deranged.
My poor mind
distracted.
For him only, I look
Out the window
Only for him do I go
Out of the house.
His tall bearing
His noble form,
The smile of his lips,
His eyes’ power,
And his talk’s
Magic flow,
The clasp of his hands,
and ah! his kiss!
My heart yearns
for him.
Ah, might I grasp
And hold him!
And kiss him,
To my heart’s content,
Under his kisses
to swoon!