O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst is a poem written by Ferdinand Freiligrath

Ferdinand Freiligrath

Ferdinand Freiligrath was a German poet, translator and liberal agitator.-Biography:Freiligrath was born in Detmold, Principality of Lippe. His father was a teacher. He left a Detmold gymnasium at 16 to be trained for a commercial career in Soest...

, a 19th century German writer. In 1847, Hungarian composer Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

 set the poem to music (soprano voice and piano), and eventually adapted it into his famous Liebesträume No. 3. The work is one of Liszt's most famous and poignant. Liebesträume in German means Dreams of Love.

Here are the first verses that Liszt copied on the piano score:
with a very approximate translation:

External links

Zwischen den Garben, the complete German text.