Es war ein König in Thule

by Goethe

This succinct and poignant song is sung in Goethe’s verse drama, Faust, by Gretchen, the innocent whom the title character hopes to seduce with the help of the devil Mephistopheles – ironically, as Faust will not be “true unto the grave”. The reader is Tatjana Pisarski.

To scroll the original and English translation of the poem at the same time - tap inside one box to select it and then scroll.

Es war ein König in Thule,
Gar treu bis an das Grab,
Dem sterbend seine Bühle
Einen goldnen Becher gab.

Es ging ihm nichts darüber,
Er leert‘ ihn jeden Schmaus;
Die Augen gingen ihm über,
So oft er trank daraus.

Und als er kam zu sterben,
Zählt‘ er seine Städt‘ im Reich,
Gönnt‘ alles seinem Erben,
Den Becher nicht zugleich.

Er sass beim Königsmahle,
Die Ritter um ihn her,
Auf hohem Vätersaale
Dort auf dem Schloss am Meer.

Dort stand der alte Zecher,
Trank letzte Lebensglut
Und warf den heiligen Becher
Hinunter in die Flut.

Er sah ihn stürzen, trinken
Und sinken tief ins Meer.
Die Augen täten ihm sinken;
Trank nie einen Tropfen mehr.

There was a King in Thule,
True unto the grave,
To whom his dying lover
Gave a golden cup.

Nothing meant more to him,
He drained it at every feast;
His eyes grew dim
Whenever he drank from it.

And when he came to die,
He reckoned up his cities in the kingdom
Bestowed everything on his heir,
Except the cup.

He sat at the royal banquet,
His knights around him,
In the lofty hall of his fathers,
There in the castle by the sea.

There the old carouser rose,
Drained the last of life’s glow
And threw the hallowed cup
Down into the tide.

He saw it drop, fill
And sink deep in the sea.
His eyelids sank;
He never drank another drop.

`

More Poems by Goethe

  1. An den Mond
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