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The lovely Loreley

The Loreley by Heinrich Heine

translated by Ernst Feise:

I do not know what haunts me,
What saddened my mind all day;
An age-old tale confounds me,
A spell I cannot allay.

The air is cool and in twilight,
The Rhine's dark waters flow;
The peak of the mountain in highlight
Reflects the evening glow.


There sits a lovely maiden

Above so wondrous fair,
With shining jewels laden,
She combs her golden hair

It falls through her comb in a shower,
And over the valley rings
A song of mysterious power
That lovely maiden sings.

The boatman in his small skiff is
Seized by a turbulent love,
No longer he marks where the cliff is,
He looks to the mountain above.

I think the waves must fling him
Against the reefs nearby,
And that did with her singing
The lovely Loreley

The Loreley by Heinrich Heine, 1824
The Original

Ich weiß nicht was soll es bedeuten,
Dass ich so traurig bin;
Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten,
Das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn.

Die Luft ist kühl und es dunkelt,
Und ruhig fließt der Rhein;
Der Gipfel des Berges funkelt
Im Abendsonnenschein.

Die schönste Jungfrau sitzet
Dort oben wunderbar;
Ihr goldnes Geschmeide blitzet,
Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar.

Sie kämmt es mit goldenem Kamme
Und singt ein Lied dabei;
Das hat eine wundersame,
Gewaltige Melodei.

Den Schiffer im kleinen Schiffe
Ergreift es mit wildem Weh;
Er schaut nicht die Felsenriffe,
Er schaut nur hinauf in die Höh.

Ich glaube, die Wellen verschlingen
Am Ende Schiffer und Kahn;
Und das hat mit ihrem Singen
Die Lore-Lei getan.

The mighty slate rock Lorelei in the Romantic Rhine Valley – around 16 miles/ 25 km from Rudesheim and 50 miles/80 km from Frankfurt airport – rises up almost vertically to 145 yards/132m above the water-level. Downstream the river is squeezed into its narrowest and deepest (24 yards/22m) point, so the Middle Rhine at this point used to be very difficult to navigate and the correct passage is (today) clearly marked with buoys.


[SIZE=3]According to a German legend, there was once a beautiful young maiden, named Lorelei, who threw herself headlong into the rhine-river in despair over a faithless lover. Upon her death she was transformed into a siren and could from that time on be heard singing on a rock along the Rhine River, near St. Goar. Her hypnotic music lured sailors to their death. The legend is based on an echoing rock with that name near Sankt Goarshausen, Germany [/SIZE]




The Meaning Of This Name
The name Loreley is composed of the former old german word „LORLEN“ ( to sweep) and „LEY“ demotic meaning: schist-, shale-,rock.
The name results from the phenomenom of the sevenfold echoe, which is scarcely audible today,because of the traffic noise.
Up to 19th century there was a small waterfall and a strong flow on the Loreley-Rock, because of the reverberation it seems
like the rushing was caused by the rock.
In early times people enquired to know
the reason and thought there were dwarfs,
living in caves of Loreley-Rock.