Liebst du um Schönheit

If You Love for Beauty · Clara Schumann, Op. 12, No. 4 (1841)
Poem: Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866), from Liebesfrühling

Liebst du um Schönheit,
O nicht mich liebe!
Liebe die Sonne,
Sie trägt ein gold'nes Haar!

If you love for beauty,
oh, do not love me!
Love the sun,
she has golden hair!

Liebst du um Jugend,
O nicht mich liebe!
Liebe den Frühling,
Der jung ist jedes Jahr!

If you love for youth,
oh, do not love me!
Love the spring,
which is young every year!

Liebst du um Schätze,
O nicht mich liebe!
Liebe die Meerfrau,
Sie hat viel Perlen klar.

If you love for riches,
oh, do not love me!
Love the mermaid,
she has many clear pearls.

Liebst du um Liebe,
O ja mich liebe!
Liebe mich immer,
Dich lieb' ich immerdar!

If you love for love,
oh yes, love me!
Love me always,
I shall love you for ever!

About the song. Clara Schumann's setting, published in 1841 in a joint set with songs by Robert (his Op. 37, her Op. 12) on poems from Rückert's Liebesfrühling. Each stanza turns away a wrong reason for loving, beauty, youth, riches, until the last asks only to be loved for love's sake. 'Um' here means 'for the sake of'; the 'Meerfrau' is a mermaid. Mahler set the same poem in 1902.

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Translation © Art Song Translations. You may print it free of charge in concert and recital programs with the credit "Translation: Art Song Translations". The German text is in the public domain; repetitions made by the composer are not printed.

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