"Wanderer's Nightsong" (German: Wanderers Nachtlied) is the title of two poems by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published in 1776 and in 1780.
"Wanderer's Nightsong II has been called the most famous lyric poem in German literature. Goethe wrote it on the evening of September 6, 1780. It is an adaptation of a lyric by the Greek poet Alcman.[1]
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One translation is by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
Thou that from the heavens art,
Every pain and sorrow stillest,
And the doubly wretched heart
Doubly with refreshment fillest,
I am weary with contending!
Why this rapture and unrest?
Peace descending
Come ah, come into my breast!
Der du von dem Himmel bist,
Alles Leid und Schmerzen stillest,
Den, der doppelt elend ist,
Doppelt mit Erquickung füllest;
Ach, ich bin des Treibens müde!
Was soll all der Schmerz und Lust?
Süßer Friede,
Komm, ach komm in meine Brust!
Up there all summits
are still.
In all the tree-tops
you will
feel but the dew.
The birds in the forest stopped talking.
Soon, done with walking,
you shall rest, too.
Über allen Gipfeln
Ist Ruh,
In allen Wipfeln
Spürest du
Kaum einen Hauch;
Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.
Warte nur, balde
Ruhest du auch.
John Ottman's musical score for Bryan Singer's film Valkyrie contains a requiem-like piece for soprano and chorus in the exit music with Ein Gleiches as lyrics. In the film's context, the poem serves as a lament on the miscarried assasination on Adolf Hitler on July 20th, 1944, mourns the proximate death of most of the assasins, and with the last two lines forecasts the demise of those, who they failed to kill.[2]