In the morning of September 6, 1780, the German poet, playwright, novelist, theater director, educator and scientist Johann Wolfgang Goethe, decided to take a hike. What began as a leisurely walk through the northern part of the Thuringia forest near the town of Illmenau, ended in the creation of one of the most brilliant little poems of the German language, high above the magnificent landscape in a little cabin* on a mountain named Kickelhahn.
The great writer had a pencil with him but no paper. Thus, he wrote the poem Wanderers Nachtlied on the cabin’s wall, expressing, as no poem has expressed before, quietness of nature and a wanderer coming to rest. From that wooden wall, the little text went into Goethe’s book of poems, became part of countless readings in literary salons, and finally it inspired Franz Schubert to compose a Lied 35 years later, far away in Vienna.
Before you undertake the little exercise below, learn the vocabulary first:
The first line of Wanderers Nachtlied:
Über allen Gipfeln
…
The last line:
Ruhest du auch.
Now, arrange these lines in the order as Goethe had written on the cabin’s wall:
Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.
Kaum einen Hauch;
Ist Ruh’,
Warte nur balde
Spürest du
In allen Wipfeln
Do you need help? Listen to Schubert’s Lied and to the voice of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and try again.
* Goethe visited the cabin one more time at old age 30 years later, a few months before his death. He read the poem out loud and after the last line (ruhest du auch) he started crying.
70 years after that, the cabin burned down. A replica was built and can still be visited today.
Typical Imperative! Can’t stop being extra! Here are some extra phrases and commands you often hear, say, or sing in life and opera, on streets, on the stage—and sometimes on the wall, too.
During rehearsals on stage you will often encounter the imperative. You will hear stage directions, mostly requests where to go, where to stand, when Tosca should take the knife, or how Hänsel and Gretel should shove the Hexe into the oven. Directors are mostly polite (I suppose) and so, they add bitte (please) to their requests and use the formal Sie.
Bitte stellen Sie sich vor den Commendatore = Please, step in front of the Commendatore.
Gehen Sie bitte nach hinten = go to the back. Kommen Sie nach vorn, bitte = come to the front.
If you wish a friend to come to you, you say Komm her. You use the verb kommen as well when you want to encourage someone to make a decision by adding the adverb schon: Komm schon, kauf das Ticket. (Come on, buy that ticket.)
If your friend is too fast and you wish them to stop walking, you yell: Bleib stehen!
If you want a person to leave, you say: Geh weg! Or more direct, more resolute, and aggressive: Hau ab!! To add a little threat you infuse the particle bloß and stretch the o a little bit: Hau bloß ab!
Leave me alone = Lass mich in Ruhe, or: Lass mich in Frieden.
From a friend who did or said something that hurt, you will hear a form of regret, almost an apology: Nimm’s mir nicht krumm = do not be angry at me (krumm = bent; krummnehmen = to take offense)
Does someone make a fuss about something? Throw at him or her: Stell dich nicht so an = do not act up.
The reflexive verb sich stellen plus adjective means to pretend: Stell dich dumm = pretend to be stupid. Often we hear: Stell dich nicht dumm, don’t pretend to be stupid.
You want a friend to abandon an idea you do not like? Schlag dir diese Idee aus dem Kopf! Literally, it means: Beat this idea out of your head.
Gib acht! = pay attention, be cautious. The word acht does not mean the number 8. It stems from achten auf (to pay attention), Achtung (attention, caution).
Seien Sie auf der Hut = be careful. Here Hut does not mean hat but protection stemming from hüten = to protect, care for (Kinder hüten). The protection-Hut carries the feminine article: die Hut. The Hut you put on your head is masculine: der Hut.
My favorite phrase is a warning to paint the future not too dark, a call to restrain from expressing pessimism, from describing a worst case scenario: Mal nicht den Teufel an die Wand! Do not paint the devil on the wall!
In a wild comedy like Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor everybody wants everybody else to act. The only thing they need to do for that is giving authorative commands. Yet, Falstaff will fail. Read the last part of the series about the imperative.
The name says it all: Pudelsalon in Schöneberg.
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor is Shakespeare set into music. In this opera, composed by Otto Nicolai and first performed in 1849, Shakespeare’s character John Falstaff, a drunkard and Junker tries to extract money from wealthy wives after falling down the social ladder. He falls even further when the objects of his intrigue, Frau Reich and Frau Fluth, weave a net of schemes and pranks he cannot escape. The opera is popular on German stages for its fireworks of wit, its fast-paced story and, of course, for its energetic music. The language of the libretto, written by poet and playwright Salomon Hermann Mosenthal, is sharp and straight and because no one is ever alone onstage (more duets than arias!), and because everyone wants to impose their will to everybody else, the imperative becomes the main tool of communication.
To create the imperative, we change the spelling of the verb and place it in the first position in the sentence. Hearing a verb as the first word of a statement sharpens our attention and raises suspense. Will the addressee do what has been requested? Frau Reich demands from Frau Fluth: Hört mich an. (anhören sep. = to listen to) Frau Fluth responds: Lest, dass ich es hören kann, read so that I can listen. (lesen = to read)
We can direct an imperative toward four possible persons or groups of persons (du, ihr, Sie and wir), but the Weiber von Windsor, their husbands, and Falstaff are concerned only with du and ihr.
1. du
We want a person we address with du to listen (anhören) to us and to read (lesen).
We cut off the -en ending and omit the du.
Hör uns an! Lies! (The verb lesen is irregular, hence the change of vowel.)
Certain verbs need an extra -e to attain a smoother sound. Their verb stem ends with -t, -d, or -s, e.g., warten, reden, blasen.
Irregular verbs with the vowel -e, (sprechen, helfen, or lesen) that change to -i or -ie in second person (du sprichst, hilfst, liest) and third person (sie spricht, es hilft, er liest) keep -i or -ie in the imperative mood:
Sprich! Herr Fluth wants his wife to tell him where her lover is.
When Frau Reich warns that Herr Fluth is approaching a compromising scene in a jealous fury, Falstaff cries out, Hilf, Himmel!
2. Ihr, ihr
Let’s express the wishes or commands for anhören and lesen to people we address with Ihr (pronoun for people of higher social rank) and ihr (pronoun for people of lower social rank).
We cut off the -en ending, add a -t and omit the Ihr or ihr.
Hört uns an! Lest!
lassen = to prompt or instigate another activity, e.g., sehen lassen
Feeling uncomfortable at Frau Reich’s suggestion of hiding him in a laundry basket, Falstaff wishes to take a look at it first: Lasst sehen den Korb geschwind.
Na wartet, das soll euch schlecht bekommen! Just wait, that will do you no good, Falstaff mumbles to himself after the men in the pub agree to have a drinking contest with him.
fassen = to grab strafen = to punish sengen obs. = to singe, to slap or beat leaving a stinging pain
In act three, the plotters of the ultimate prank deploy a firework of imperatives calling the mosquitos and wasps to torment poor Falstaff: Fasst ihn! Straft ihn! Sengt ihn, lasst ihn drehen. In the Mückentanz, the “elves” stoke the harassment even more: Stecht! Quält den Tor (fool)!
Even the audience is not spared the imperative. In the last sentence of the libretto, the ensemble asks the spectators to forgive (verzeihen). Verzeihet auch Ihr, und hätten Euch die lustigen Weiber gefallen.
****
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor and its language appears in my book Die Frist ist um—Navigate the Language of 10 German Operas. You will learn about the opera’s vocabulary, phrases, its characters’ humor and feistiness, and the linguistics of four duets and arias.
Whoever moves through a realm of thousand rules, will be ruled by one command, less to act but rather to be in a certain way. And thus, the stage is set for Die Zauberflöte. Part 2 of the series about the imperative highlights the use of sein (to be).
With Die Zauberflöte we enter a world of rituals and pyramids and a rock-solid paradigm, the world of Freemasonry, where hierarchy demands obedience for the sake of good. Free will is of limited value unless its goals are Stärke, Schönheit, and Weisheit, the trinity of strength, beauty, and wisdom, praised by the priests in the opera’s final bars. As a result, the language is filled with orders and encouragement, for which grammar gives us the imperative—by cutting the verbs to the core and putting them at the beginning of the sentence.
zittern = tremble
Ich zittre, du zitterst are declarative statements but the Königin der Nacht seeing Tamino actually trembling has only a demand for him: Zittre nicht! Where a command is received there is doubt and fear, at least in Zauberflöte, and where there is fear there are speculations. For these, and for expressing a desire, grammar provides us with the subjunctive. O, wär ich eine Maus. But where there is fear, there might be courage too. Running full circle, the imperative occurs again with a little word that often appears when bold decisions need a strong character: sei or as it was spelled in Mozart’s times: sey.
Sein is the infinitive of sei (modern spelling) and an irregular verb: Ich bin, du bist; er, sie, es ist; ihr seid; wir, Sie, sie sind.
If we want to give a command to a person to whom we usually say du, we simply cut off the -n of sein. For the other pronouns we change accordingly:
After Papageno gets upset about Tamino’s wish to see the Königin der Nacht, Tamino tries to appease him: Sei nicht ungehalten. (Do not be angry.) The Drei Knaben tell Tamino, Sei standhaft, duldsam und verschwiegen. (Be steadfast, forbearing, and discreet.)
We also use the imperative when we want to encourage ourselves or others. Pamina makes the attempt to flee and cries out, Sei es gewagt! (wagen = to dare). During the initiation ceremony, Tamino entreats, Weisheitslehre sei mein Sieg. Earlier, hoping to get the Drei Damen to bring him to Sarastro’s temple, he calls for Pamina’s rescue: Pamina sei gerettet! (Pamina shall be rescued!)
Read soon part 3 of the imperative series: What the lustigen Weiber von Windsor want you to do.
Expressing passion requires the use of the imperative. German operas are full with it.
In a series of three parts, we will examine the use of the command, the imperative. Read in part 1 how Hänsel and Gretel get bossed around by the Hexe.
The iron rule of the German word order–placing the verb always in the second position–must be broken by everyone who wants to take control and give a command. Then, the verb will ellbow its way to the first position, and here it will appear concise and brusque.
If we want to direct a command to a person we address with the informal du or to a group of familiar persons (ihr), we alter the verb accordingly and omit the pronoun. The imperative for the formal Sie and also wir needs the pronoun. The verb “sein” is irregular.
The witch has caught the hungry children, locked Hänsel in a cage, and got Gretel as a compliant assistant to help her to fatten up the boy— or as it seems. Now, with Hokuspokus, Hexenschuss! she puts a spell on them.
Hokuspokus, Hexenschuss!
Vocabulary
rühren = here: to move Fluss m = here: stream of magic energy bannen = to put under a spell starr = stiff Genick n = neck Zauberknopf m = magic button Tropf m = fool, ninny lokus Lat. = place bonus Lat. = good malus Lat. = bad jokus Lat. = prank
Hokuspokus, Hexenschuss! Rühr dich, und dich trifft der Fluss! Nicht mehr vorwärts, nicht zurück, bann dich mit dem bösen Blick. Kopf steh starr dir im Genick! Hokuspokus, nun kommt Jokus!
Kinder, schaut den Zauberknopf! Äuglein, stehet still im Kopf!— Nun zum Stall hinein, du Tropf! Hokuspokus, bonus, jokus, Malus lokus, hokuspokus!
The spell of the witch is nothing other than a sequence of commands, verbs in imperative, sent out into the ether. When she addresses a child or a thing, here Hänsel and his head, she simply removes the -en ending of the infinitive.
rühren refl. Imperative (du): rühr. In the second stanza, as she demands Gretel not to move, she adds an -e: Rühre dich nicht von der Stell’!
stehen. Imperative (du): steh.
The verb bann (bannen) is short for ich banne. She talks about herself: Ich banne dich mit bösem Blick.
When she addresses both children and their eyes (Äugelein), she must use ihr, the plural of du. For the imperative (ihr) she removes the -en ending of the infinitive and adds a -t or an -et.
schauen. Imperative (ihr): schaut.
stehen. Imperative (ihr): stehet.
She bewitches Hänsel and orders him not to move vorwärts (forward) or zurück (backward). Eventually, she directs him zum Stall hinein (hin describes a position in relation to a movement).
In the last stanza, the Hexe turns to Gretel with a friendlier demeanor, starting with the imperative of sein (to be), an irregular verb: sei.
She even uses the first person plural, wir, and wollen (to want) as if she and Gretel shared common interests.
vernünftig = reasonable Stelle f = here: spot
Nun, Gretel, sei vernünftig und nett!— Der Hänsel wird nun balde fett. Wir wollen ihn, so ist’s am besten, mit süßen Mandeln und Rosinen mästen. Ich geh ins Haus und hole sie schnell— Du, rühre dich nicht von der Stell’!
Read soon in part 2: The imperative in Die Zauberflöte
Learn more about the imperative in German opera—among many other things—in my latest book “Die Frist ist um—Navigate the Language of 10 German Operas.”
How to Approach a German Text, Part 3: Try it out with Heine’s Die Lotosblume.
In part two you’ve learned a simplified method to understand the text of a German aria or Lied. To practice examine Die Lotosblume (The Lotos Flower), a poem by Heinrich Heine, set to music by Robert Schumann as well as other composers.
“Nur Liebesbriefe”, seen at Karl-Marx-Allee
Follow these steps:
1. Mark all nouns.
2. Identify the verbs (action words) and look how they are conjugated (changed in spelling according to ich, du, er, wir, etc.).
3. Look at the meaning of the verb and find the thing, person, or pronoun that is doing this action.
4. Find the thing, person, or pronoun to whom the action is directed.
But first, learn its vocabulary:
ängstigen reflexive = to be afraid of. Refl. die Lotosblume ängstigt sich
Pracht f = glory, magnificence, Der Sonne Pracht is in the genitive case, meaning one noun (Pracht) depends on the other noun (die Sonne).
senken = to lower, participle: gesenkt
Haupt (das) obsolete = head
Buhle (der) obsolete = lover
ihr = possessive her
seinem = possessive his
ihm = dative pronoun, indirect object to him
entschleiern = to unveil
fromm = pious
starren = to stare
Höhe f = here: up to the skies
Liebesweh n = a lover’s grief
Die Lotosblume ängstigt sich vor der Sonne Pracht, und mit gesenktem Haupte erwartet sie träumend die Nacht.
Who ängstigt sich? 1*
Who erwartet? (And how?)1 ** Die Nacht? Das Haupt? Die Lotosblume?
Der Mond, der ist ihr Buhle, er weckt sie mit seinem Licht, und ihm entschleiert sie freundlich ihr frommes Blumengesicht.
Who weckt? (And how?) 2*
Who entschleiert? 2** The moon or the lotus flower? Beware! Do not get tricked by the word order. Remember, only nouns whose gender agree with the article (feminine with die, sie; masculinewith der, er; neuter with das, es; plural with die, sie) can entschleiern.
What is entschleiert? 2*** (And to whom?)
Sie blüht und glüht und leuchtet, und starret stumm in die Höh; sie duftet und weinet und zittert vor Liebe und Liebesweh.
The last verse contains seven verbs, all conjugated to the subject of the sentence, the Lotosblume. These verbs cannot have a direct object, which means the Lotosblume can glow, but it cannot glow a tree. It can cry, but it cannot cry a house.
Listen to Schumann’s Lotosblume, sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
1*: Die Lotosblume.
1**: Die Lotosblume erwartet, it appears as pronoun sie. She expects the moon mit gesenktem Haupte and träumend (dreaming).
2*: Der Mond which appears as pronoun er (In German, the moon is a masculine noun.)
2**: Don’t mind the word order! Find the verb first: entschleiert. Look at the noun (Blumengesicht) and the pronouns (ihm, sie) and decide which word does entschleiert. It only can be sie, she, the flower: sie entschleiert. The dative pronoun ihm is er (he, the moon) as indirect object. Sie gibt ihm einen Apfel. (She gives him an apple.) Sie entschleiert ihm…
The German word order demands that the verb (entschleiert) has to appear in the second position, no matter what is placed in the first. Heinrich Heine placed ihm in the first position because it is the moon that begins the verse: ihm entschleiert sie. It also means that the Blumengesicht lingering at the very end of the sentence cannot be the one that entschleiert.
Ach ich fühl's 