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# Heine’s “The Two Grenadiers” in Music by Schumann and Wagner and in Fet’s Translation
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/stikhotvorenie-genrikha-geine-dva-grenadera-bylo-chrezvychaino-populiarnym-v-svoe-vremia-na-muzyku-ego-perekladyvali-robert-shuman-i-rikhard-vagner/
- Published: 2021-01-24T15:10:10.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:02:11.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev

Heinrich Heine's poem "The Two Grenadiers" was enormously popular in its day, and was set to music by [Robert Schumann](https://youtu.be/8KMjt6fRJG0?ref=theparnassian.com) and [Richard Wagner.](https://youtu.be/IkwRs2%5FIgVo?ref=theparnassian.com) It has been translated many times; the best-known Russian versions are those of Fet and Gumilev. The influence of "The Two Grenadiers" can also be found in Mussorgsky's celebrated "Field Marshal" ("Polkovodets"), which mocks the lines of Heine's poem in its song. Heine's verses were undoubtedly inspired by Napoleon, and it is sometimes even claimed that the poem was written under the impression of Bonaparte's death, but this is not quite so: the poem is believed to have been written in 1819 or 1820, although Heine himself gave the year as 1816.

The Two Grenadiers in Fet's translation:

Two grenadiers were walking to France,  
They had been prisoners in Russia,  
But no sooner had they reached German soil  
Than they hung their heads at once.

A sorrowful piece of news rang in their ears:  
That France exists no more,  
The great army is smashed to dust,  
And the Emperor himself is in captivity.

And the grenadiers could not hold back their tears,  
So bitter was it for them to hear!  
And one said: "Oh, how hard it is to breathe!  
How my old wound has begun to ache!"

The other said: "It is the end of everything!  
I would gladly die of grief with you!  
But a wife and children are waiting for me at home,  
And without me they would be lost."

"What are children to me, what is my wife's fate!  
My soul strives for something higher:  
Let them go begging through the world when they are hungry!  
The Emperor languishes in captivity!"

"Grant me a request, dear comrade:  
When I close my eyes here,  
Take my body with you to France,  
Cover it there with French earth."

"And lay my cross of honour upon my heart  
On its red ribbon,  
And put my musket in my hand,  
And fasten my sword on me too."

"So I shall lie in my coffin  
As if on sentry duty, in silence,  
Until I hear the thunder of cannon,  
And the trampling and neighing of horses:"

"Then my Emperor will ride over my grave,  
Swords will clash on every side,  
And, risen from the tomb in battle splendour,  
I shall go to save the Emperor."

*Literal translation*