Der Mond ist aufgegangen

Der Mond ist aufgegangen. Matthias Claudius* (1740-1821). First published in a poetic annual, Musen Almanach oder Poetische Blumenlese für das Jahr 1779 (Hamburg, 1778, edited by Johann Heinrich Voß), and then in Part IV (1783) of Claudius’s writings, Asmus omnia sua secum portans, oder samtliche Werke des Wandsbecker Bothen. It was called “Abendlied’ (Evening Hymn’), and was a companion-piece or imitation of ‘Nun ruhen alle Wälder’* by Paul Gerhardt*. It has an engaging child-like simplicity, emphasised by the reference to children in verse 5: ‘wie Kinder fromm und fröhlich sein’ (‘to be like children good and happy’). The seven verses were translated by Catherine Winkworth* in Lyra...