The poem (Wilhelm Müller – printed original edition 1824)

From: Winterreise – Song VI

Manche Trän’ aus meinen Augen
ist gefallen in den Schnee;
seine kalten Flocken saugen
durstig ein das heiße Weh.

Wenn die Gräser sprossen wollen,
weht daher ein lauer Wind,
und das Eis zerspringt in Schollen,
und der weiche Schnee zerrinnt.

Schnee, du weißt von meinem Sehnen;
sag’ mir, wohin geht dein Lauf?
Folge nach nur meinen Tränen –
nimmt dich bald das Bächlein auf.

Wirst mit ihm die Stadt durchziehen,
muntre Straßen ein und aus,
fühlst du meine Tränen glühen,
da ist meiner Liebsten Haus.

English translation

Many a tear from my eyes
has fallen into the snow;
its cold flakes absorb
the hot sorrow thirstily.

When the grasses begin to sprout,
a mild wind blows along,
and the ice breaks into floes,
and the soft snow melts away.

Snow, you know of my longing;
tell me, where does your course go?
Just follow my tears –
soon the little brook will take you up.

With it you will pass through the town,
in and out of lively streets;
if you feel my tears glowing,
there is my beloved’s house.

Work data & overview

• Composer: Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
• Cycle: Winterreise D 911, No. 6 (Wasserflut)
• Text source: Wilhelm Müller, Winterreise (1823/24)
• Composition: 1827; first printed edition 1828 (Part I)
• Key / metre / tempo: E minor, 3/4, slow, calmly treading
• Duration: approx. 3–4 minutes
• Scoring: voice and piano (transpositions common)
• Form: strophic

Data on the poem

• Author: Wilhelm Müller (1794–1827)
• Stanza form: 4 quatrains; cross rhyme
• Devices: antithesis (hot/cold), personification, river imagery, direct address to the snow

Genesis & cycle context

In the early arc of Winterreise, the oasis of memory in The Linden Tree is followed by a sober return to the cold. “Wasserflut” shows how the inward – tears and warmth – disappears into the outer world and at the same time passes over into motion.

In this way, the song sets in motion the motif of flowing, which is continued and psychologically sharpened in On the River. Pain here is no longer merely rigidity, but motion without redemption.

More on the relation among the early songs in the Winterreise – Overview, and on the cycle’s deeper layer in the article Winterreise as a journey into the abyss of the soul.

Performance practice & reception

Pulse & diction: a calm 3/4 tread, close to the text and without pathos. Contrasts arise through tone colour and inner temperature, not through strong tempo shifts.

Piano texture: soft inner motion as a metaphor of melting and flowing; pedal sparse and purposeful. Voice-piano timing should be set to the key words: “thirstily,” “hot,” “melts away,” “little brook.”

Historical reference interpreters

• Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau – baritone
• Hermann Prey – baritone

Current interpreters with whom I collaborate

• Gerrit Illenberger
• Benjamin Russell
• Matthias Lika
• Johann Kristinsson
• Johannes Kammler

Analysis – music

“Tears” figure & piano texture

Short, connected motions in the piano suggest drops → trickling. The line remains narrow and cool; the voice lies relatively low and syllabic, so that expression arises through restraint.

The musical motion is not illustrative in any simple sense, but carries meaning: tears are not merely named, but set into sonic flow. How such open signs function in song I describe in the background article The semiotics of song.

Form, tonal space & direction

The strophic design preserves the even tread of walking; small harmonic brightenings mark longing, darkenings in return mark reality. The ending already lays out continued motion – the motif carries forward into the next song.

Visual representation

Artistic visualisation by Evgenia Foelsche:
The snow begins to melt, and a rushing brook streams through the village. The water carries away the traces of winter cold and transforms the rigid landscape into restless, moving current. The scene lies in darkness, as though the sky were still sealed shut.

Yet a rift opens in the cloud cover. A single ray of sunlight falls directly upon the beloved’s house and breaks itself in its windows. The light appears almost supernatural – as though awakening a memory that cannot be suppressed.

The image takes up the song’s symbolism: the “flood” stands for the wanderer’s breaking-open feelings. As the snow melts, frozen sensations loosen, and the inner life passes into motion. The water becomes the bearer of his tears, his longing, his lament.

The ray of light makes the scene ambivalent. It seems to promise hope – and yet directs the eye back to the unattainable house. While the water continues to flow on, the source of the pain remains immovably in place.

Analysis – poetry

The poem “Wasserflut” consistently carries forward the motif of tears from “Frozen Tears”. The wanderer now regards his pain no longer merely as an inner state, but follows its course through the winter landscape. Tears become a medium that generates motion – but without redemption.

Tears and snow: silent disappearance

Manche Trän’ aus meinen Augen
ist gefallen in den Schnee;
seine kalten Flocken saugen
durstig ein das heiße Weh.

The first stanza binds inner suffering directly to nature. The tears fall into the snow and are absorbed by it. The image is bitter: the pain leaves no visible trace. The cold environment does not erase it, but makes it invisible.

Spring as mere possibility

Wenn die Gräser sprossen wollen,
weht daher ein lauer Wind,
und das Eis zerspringt in Schollen,
und der weiche Schnee zerrinnt.

This stanza sketches an image of dissolution and motion. Yet everything stands in the conditional. Spring is no consolation, but only a possibility. Hope exists here as thought, not as experienced reality.

The desire for direction

Schnee, du weißt von meinem Sehnen;
sag’ mir, wohin geht dein Lauf?
Folge nach nur meinen Tränen –
nimmt dich bald das Bächlein auf.

The wanderer addresses the snow directly. He seeks orientation, a direction for his longing. The tears are to form a trace that can be followed. Yet the image tips: the meltwater is taken up by the brook. The individual dissolves into the flow.

The stream of tears leads to the beloved

Wirst mit ihm die Stadt durchziehen,
muntre Straßen ein und aus,
fühlst du meine Tränen glühen,
da ist meiner Liebsten Haus.

In the final stanza, the water’s motion receives a concrete direction. The brook runs through the town, through lively streets – into the world from which the wanderer is excluded. The tears still “glow”; every path of pain leads back to her.

“Wasserflut” shows a pain that flows, yet does not pass away. The tears are in motion, but they do not carry the wanderer onward – inwardly they lead him again and again back to the same place.

Meaning & effect within the cycle

Within Winterreise, “Wasserflut” marks an important stage of development: the wanderer realizes that even motion brings no solution if inwardly it remains bound. Pain is no longer frozen, but flowing – and precisely therein lies its hopelessness.

The song binds natural motion and memory into a closed inner logic. The world takes up the tears, yet does not lead them into the future, but back to the beloved.

Precisely because the song keeps this motion open, it continues to work. More on this in the article Art that keeps working.

Evgenia Fölsche – performances & audio

Pianist Evgenia Fölsche shapes the song as a quiet flowing: elastic 3/4 pulse, fine word accents, restrained pedal. The sound remains muted – as though warmth were to disappear at once in the cold medium.

Listening example: Wasserfluth with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore

Back to the Winterreise overview