Description
Instrumental arrangement of Tschaikovksy’s song Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt (known in English as “Only the lonely heart” but more literally translated as “Only he who knows what yearning is”).
This poem originally appeared in German, in Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship).
It is one of the songs of Mignon, a character in that novel.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed a set of six romances for voice and piano, the last being the melancholy “Harpist’s Song” Нет, только тот, кто знал… poem by Lev Aleksandrovich Mey (1822-1862), which was a translation from Goethe’s poem.
My arrangement is based on Goethe’s original poem.
I have provided an English translation for reference.
Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt,
weiß, was ich leide!
[Only the yearning heart
knows what I suffer!]
Allein und abgetrennt
von aller Freude,
[Alone and far away from
joy and bliss,]
seh ich ans Firmament
nach jener Seite.
[I turn my eyes
to the sky beyond.]
Ach! Die mich liebt und kennt,
ist in der Weite.
[Oh! She who loves and understands me
is so far away.]
Es schwindelt mir, es brennt
mein Eingeweide.
[My senses fail,
A burning fire devours me.]
Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt
weiß was ich leide!
[Only the yearning heart
knows what I suffer!]