39.5″ x 39.5″
Oil on Canvas
Private Collection – Toronto, Ontario
Ablosung im Sommer
(Changing of the guard in summertime)
The cuckoo has taken a fatal fancy
To a green willow!
(Cuckoo is dead! He took a fatal fancy!)
Who, then, is to help us pass the time and chase away
boredom all summer long?
Ho! Lady Nightingale shall do that!
She sits on a green branch!
(The fine little nightingale, the dear, sweet nightingale!)
She sings and jumps, and is always merry
When other birds are silent!
We’re waiting for Lady Nightingale,
Who lives in the green hedgerow,
And when the cuckoo is finished,
She begins to sing!
Text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Achim von Armin (1781-1831) and Clemens Brentano (1778-1842)