Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...

 composed a set of six romances for voice and piano, Op. 6, in late 1869; the last of these songs is the melancholy "None but the Lonely Heart" .

It was set to Lev Mei's poem "The Harpist's Song," which in turn was translated from Goethe's

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...

 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship is the second novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1795-96. While his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, featured a hero driven to suicide by despair, the eponymous hero of this novel undergoes a journey of self-realization...

.

Tchaikovsky dedicated this piece to Alina Khvostova. The song was premiered by Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano

A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...

 Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya

Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya

Yelizaveta Andreyevna Lavrovskaya was a Russian mezzo-soprano praised for her dramatic performances of operatic arias and her sensitive interpretations of lieder. An acquaintance of composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, she suggesed that he compose an opera based on Alexander Pushkin's verse-play...

 in Moscow in 1870, following it with its St. Petersburg premiere the following year during an all-Tchaikovsky concert hosted by Nikolai Rubinstein; the latter was the first concert devoted entirely to Tchaikovsky's works.

Text

Mei's Russian translation:

Net, tol'ko tot, kto znal svidan'ja, zhazhdu,

pojmjot, kak ja stradal i kak ja strazhdu.

Gljazhu ja vdal'... net sil, tusknejet oko...

Akh, kto menja ljubil i znal - daleko!

Akh, tol'ko tot, kto znal svidan'ja zhazhdu,

pojmjot, kak ja stradal i kak ja strazhdu.

Vsja grud' gorit...

Kto znal svidan'ja zhazhdu,

pojmjot, kak ja stradal i kak ja strazhdu.

Goethe's German original:

Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt

Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt

Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The poem appeared in Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship...

Weiß, was ich leide!

Allein und abgetrennt

Von aller Freude,

Seh ich ans Firmament

Nach jener Seite.

Ach! der mich liebt und kennt,

Ist in der Weite.

Es schwindelt mir, es brennt

Mein Eingeweide.

Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt

Weiß, was ich leide!

An English translation:

None but the lonely heart

Can know my sadness

Alone and parted

Far from joy and gladness

Heaven's boundless arch I see

Spread out above me

O(h) what a distance drear to one

Who loves me

None but the lonely heart

Can know my sadness

Alone and parted

Far from joy and gladness

Alone and parted far

From joy and gladness

My senses fail

A burning fire

Devours me

None but the lonely heart

Can know my sadness