The Song of the Earth

apr 10, 11
Song of the Earth: Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde
Minnesota Orchestra
Mark Wigglesworth, conductor
Mihoko Fujimura, mezzo | Stuart Skelton, tenor
Friday, April 10, 2015, 8 pm
Saturday, April 11, 2015, 8 pm
Franz Joseph Haydn
Orchestra Hall
Orchestra Hall
Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor, Farewell
ca. 25’
Allegro assai
Adagio
Menuet: Allegretto
Presto — Adagio
I
Gustav Mahler
music up close
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Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow: Allegro pesante
The Lonely One in Autumn: Somewhat dragging, as if tired
Youth: At ease, cheerful
Beauty: Comodo — Dolcissimo
The Drunkard in Spring: Allegro
The Farewell: Heavily (Pesante)
Mihoko Fujimura, mezzo; Stuart Skelton, tenor
ca. 20’
ca. 59’
Pre-concert panel discussion with Mark Wigglesworth, Sidney Wade and Pablo Medina,
moderated by Kenneth Freed
Friday, April 10, 7:15 pm, Target Atrium
Saturday, April 11, 7:15 pm, Target Atrium
Minnesota Orchestra concerts are broadcast live on Friday evenings on stations of Minnesota Public Radio, including KSJN 99.5 FM
in the Twin Cities.
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M INN E S O T A O R CH ESTRA
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Artists
Mark Wigglesworth,
conductor
English conductor Mark Wigglesworth is
in demand as a guest conductor of the
world’s most prestigious orchestras and
opera companies, from London, Berlin,
Milan and Sydney to New York, Chicago
and Los Angeles. In September 2015 he
becomes music director of the English
National Opera, one of the world’s most
esteemed opera companies.
Minnesota Orchestra: Wigglesworth
has enjoyed a close relationship with this
Orchestra, leading subscription concerts
almost every season since 1995.
Recent, upcoming: His current
engagements include a return to the
Royal Opera House at Covent Garden,
a new production of Britten’s Owen
Wingrave for the Aldeburgh and
Edinburgh Festivals, and concerts with
the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, BBC
National Orchestra of Wales at the
BBC Proms, and major orchestras of
Amsterdam, São Paulo, Sydney and
Adelaide.
Discography: He has recorded the
complete Shostakovich symphonies and,
with Stephen Hough and the Salzburg
Mozarteum, the Brahms piano concertos.
More: cmartists.com,
markwigglesworth.com.
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Mihoko Fujimura, mezzo
Stuart Skelton, tenor
Since drawing international attention
at the 2002 Munich Opera Festival and
Bayreuth Festival, Mihoko Fujimura
has appeared regularly on the stages
of major opera houses and symphony
orchestras worldwide. In these concerts
she is welcomed for her first Minnesota
Orchestra appearances.
Opera: Fujimura has performed for nine
consecutive seasons at the Bayreuth
Festival and returns frequently to venues
including the Royal Opera House at
Covent Garden, Milan’s La Scala, the
Bavarian State Opera, Vienna State
Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris,
Madrid’s Teatro Real and Deutsche Oper
Berlin.
Concerts, Recordings: Her repertoire
ranges from the Verdi Requiem and
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to works
of Wagner, Mahler and Schoenberg, in
performances with such conductors as
Christoph Eschenbach, Kurt Masur,
Sir Simon Rattle, Mariss Jansons and the
late Claudio Abbado and Sir Colin Davis.
Among her recordings are two solo recital
discs with pianist Wolfram Rieger of
songs by Schubert, Strauss, Brahms and
Schumann as well as Wagner and Mahler.
More: askonasholt.co.uk.
Australian heldentenor Stuart Skelton, now
debuting with the Minnesota Orchestra,
is acclaimed for his musicianship, tonal
beauty and dramatic portrayals; he was
named male singer of the year at the 2014
International Opera Awards.
Current, recent: Skelton’s 2014-15
season includes debuts in the title role
of Otello and as Tristan in Tristan and
Isolde, with the English National Opera
and Sydney Symphony, respectively. He
also sings Rachmaninoff’s The Bells at
the BBC Proms, The Dream of Gerontius
in Toronto, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
with the Hamburg Philharmonic and BBC
Scottish Symphony, Janáček’s Glagolitic
Mass and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with
the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra,
and his signature role of Peter Grimes
in Britten’s opera with the Iceland
Symphony Orchestra.
Collaborations: He has worked with
conductors including Daniel Barenboim,
Christoph von Dohnányi, Jiří Bělohlávek,
Christoph Eschenbach, Mariss Jansons
and James Levine; he has recorded Das
Lied von der Erde with the San Francisco
and Sydney symphonies.
More: stuartskelton.com.
one-minute notes
Haydn: Symphony No. 45, Farewell
The always-original Haydn composed this immensely popular symphony as a subliminal message to his patron:
exiting the stage one by one, the players enacted their wish to depart court and return home to their families.
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth)
In this powerful synthesis of song and symphony, Mahler juxtaposed sadness—the knowledge that all mortals will
die—with the great joys of life, particularly the reawakening of nature each spring. Constructed on six songs for
tenor and mezzo, the work is rich in moods, from poignant longing to exuberance and hushed serenity.
M ARCH / APRI L 2015
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Program Notes
the music
allegro assai. The very quick and forceful first movement
Franz Joseph Haydn
Born: March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Austria
Died: May 31, 1809, Vienna
Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor, Farewell
p
rince Nicholas Esterházy, who became Haydn’s
employer after the death of the composer’s initial
patron, Prince Anton Paul Esterházy, was a vigorous
advocate of conspicuous consumption. He had built a
pseudo-Versailles on the Neusiedler Lake, near what
is now the Austro-Hungarian border, and the more
enchanted he became with it, the longer were the periods
of service he demanded there from his musicians. As
capellmeister, Haydn enjoyed some perquisites and
privileges, but for the rank and file of the orchestra, the
long sojourns in the country meant painful separation
from their families.
a symphony’s subliminal message
In 1772 it seemed as though the household would never
return home to Eisenstadt, and the increasingly depressed
musicians appealed to Haydn for help. His response was to
write a symphony in which the customary quick finale was
broken off in mid-course, the music then continuing as a
second slow movement. During the course of this Adagio,
one player after another blew out the candle at his desk
and departed, leaving just two violinists on stage at the
end, concertmaster Luigi Tomasini and Haydn himself.
The prince got the point, and the court left for town the
next day. This, at least, is the most likely of the various
stories tied to this piece.
The Farewell Symphony owes a large part of its present
fame to that anecdote, but it was one of Haydn’s most
valued, most circulated, most played symphonies even
before the story came to be generally known in the 1780s.
Haydn’s originality was most strikingly manifested in the
extraordinary series of intensely dramatic works in minor
keys he wrote around 1770, and the Farewell itself is, on
any terms and by any standards, one of Haydn’s greatest
symphonies. Minor-key symphonies are rare and special
in this period, but the key of F-sharp minor is rare among
the rare. The blacksmith at Eszterháza had to build new
crooks, additional lengths of tubing, for the horns in
F-sharp needed in the minuet.
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M INN E S O T A O R CH ESTRA
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is music of uncommon passion, with its striding arpeggio
theme and its tensely syncopated accompaniments.
Introducing a completely new theme of enchanting grace
in the middle of the development, and not ceasing to
elaborate and expand material long after we expect the
settling process of recapitulation to have begun, it is as
remarkable in form as in feeling.
adagio. The limpid and muted second movement, like the
Andante in Mozart’s E-flat Symphony, seems to promise
more innocence than it delivers: the tone of voice stays
low, but the modulations are amazing adventures.
menuet: allegretto. Next comes a robust minuet, full
of surprises at every turn in harmony (the first bass
entrance!), rhythm and scoring. The horn-dominated
trio quotes a Gregorian melody from the Holy Week
liturgy, one Haydn had used some years earlier in his
Lamentatione Symphony, No. 26.
finale: presto – adagio. The Finale begins at great speed
and in a condition of high urgency. Where we expect it to
be over—it would be a terse finale, but not implausibly
so—Haydn makes a large harmonic loop and comes to
rest on the dominant of the home key, as though he were
to begin again. A long silence is broken by an Adagio in
A major, the same key as the “real” slow movement, but
quite unprepared and unexpected here. After a colorful
little passage for the winds, the first oboe and second
horn fall silent. To reassure the puzzled copyist, Haydn
writes “nichts mehr” (nothing more) in his autograph.
The music resumes, and one by one, instruments play
farewell solos and leave: bassoon, second oboe, first
horn, double bass (whose solo, more elaborate than that
of the others, moves the music into its final harmonic
destination of F-sharp major). The survivors play the
gently pathos-filled slow music again. The cello leaves,
then all the violins but two, then the viola. The two
remaining violins are muted, and their music, too, leaving
us somewhere between tears and a smile, recedes into
silence and darkness.
Instrumentation: 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns,
harpsichord and strings
Program note excerpted from the late Michael Steinberg’s
The Symphony: A Listener’s Guide (Oxford, 1995), used
with permission.
Program Notes
Gustav Mahler
Born: July 7, 1860, Kalischt, Bohemia
Died: May 18, 1911, Vienna
Das Lied von der Erde
(The Song of the Earth)
m
ahler’s Das Lied von der Erde is his final synthesis
of song and symphony. And though he lived
several years after composing it in 1907-08, it was also
his farewell to life.
Thoughts of death had preoccupied Mahler throughout
much of his life: during his youth he had lost family
members, and later, at what should have been the peak of
his personal happiness, he and his wife Alma buried their
four-year-old daughter, a victim of scarlet fever. In his
late 40s, at the summit of his career as one of the most
original composers and electrifying conductors of all time,
Mahler came to terms with his own fate: debilitating
heart disease.
The faith he had sought continued to elude him; only in
a sense of oneness with nature did Mahler find meaning
for human existence and the serenity to accept whatever
comes beyond. Thus, across the six great movements of
Das Lied von der Erde, Mahler juxtaposed the sadness of
mortality with the ecstasy of life.
Mahler did not survive to hear a performance of Das Lied
von der Erde. His friend and disciple Bruno Walter led the
premiere in Munich on November 20, 1911, six months
after the composer’s death.
‘eine symphonie’
This work, which Mahler referred to as “Eine Symphonie,”
is a massive orchestral song cycle, lyric and dramatic,
for tenor and mezzo (or baritone), with the vocalists
forming a single protagonist. It is indeed a symphony,
not a cantata, but on its own Mahlerian terms, setting
forth conflict and a network of developable themes and
motifs in the opening movement, the most complex of the
six, and continuing with contrasting shorter movements
generated from the main idea. With the final resolution,
the poignant Farewell, all the conflicts are dissolved.
Mahler’s original title page was headed Die Flöte aus
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Jade (The Jade Flute), a variant of the title of a volume
of poetry, The Chinese Flute, sent to the composer by a
friend in 1907. Translated from the Chinese by Hans
Bethge, the verses project an aura of oriental fatalism
suited to Mahler’s mood at the time. To begin, he chose
a poem that contrasts the eternally renewing beauty of
earth with man’s ephemeral place on earth. And when he
approached the ending of this composition Mahler added
his own lines to reflect his passionate love of the earth
bidding it farewell.
Taking its cue from the poetic source, the music
often evokes a Chinese atmosphere by the use of the
pentatonic, or five-note, scale, importing further unity to
a score in which Mahler at times sidesteps into some of
the strongest dissonances he ever wrote, which hint at the
direction he might have followed had he survived longer.
the many moods of Das Lied
A panoply of moods, always changing, springs from
Mahler’s fusion of the ecstasy of life with his acceptance
of mortality.
Terror looms in the opening Drinking Song of Earth’s
Sorrow—in the couching figure of the howling ape. The
subsequent movement, The Lonely One in Autumn, ranges
from the quietude of autumn’s mists to the rending cry of
the solitary protagonist, yearning for the sun to dry his tears.
The mood lightens in the three following poems and their
settings: first, Youth, in an almost tension-free memory,
marked by delicate chinoiserie as it evokes a pavilion
where carefree friends are drinking tea.
Beauty, a slow movement, projects a fragile idyll: young
women are picking flowers at the river’s edge when their
serenity is interrupted by young men on horseback, riding
to vigorous march music typical of Mahler.
The fifth movement adds to the diversity of the work’s
center: a robust portrait of The Drunkard in Spring,
reeling from key to key in a boisterous celebration of life;
from his bed, he hears the cheery calls of the first bird
of springtime—an image that forges an inner link to the
work’s close.
With The Farewell Mahler ultimately delivers his own
valediction in a broad and moving coda.
music and poetry, equally powerful
The score is rich, and the forms complex, but it is the
texts of the poems that carry the listener across its
dramatic course, from defiance to resignation.
The first movement, The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow,
M ARCH / APRI L 2015
M I NNES O TA O RCHEST R A
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Program Notes
Mahler in 1907, the
year he began writing
Das Lied von der Erde.
is the most challenging, for it embraces so much.
From the moment the horn fanfare of the orchestral
introduction sets the epic tone, the music quickly
proceeds to disclose musical ideas—whole themes as well
a striking motifs—that will be contrasted, developed,
truncated, cross-fertilized and reprised, but not
necessarily as they were heard before. Praising wine, a
symbol of exuberance, the tenor voice launches a song in
a powerful rising line, energetic and defiant.
But much of this movement’s thought tends toward a
downward inflection, not only inside the textures but in
the top line. An example is the anguished refrain, “Dark
is life, dark is death,” whose sustained descent lifts only
at the reference to life. The composer associated the
downward, depressive motion with death, against which
the ascending line embodies life and vitality—a conflict
gradually resolved across the long span of the work,
before the transcendent close.
“As if tired,” Mahler instructs at the top of The Lonely One
in Autumn, which positions the protagonist in a misty
landscape (violins) through whose dank fogs the plaintive
voice of the oboe yields an expressive song before the
mezzo voice brings the poetic text to Mahler’s tonal
landscape. Thus begins the four-movement centerpiece of
the score, so diverse and plentiful in vivid nature imagery,
only to arrive in the fifth movement of the exuberant
outburst of the happy drunkard in springtime—the most
hedonistic and colorful episode of the work. Spring
awakens with the chirruping of the bird, and the piping
and trilling of nature, taking the work to the threshold
of The Farewell. There the mood changes: an ominous
vibration of the tam-tam, conjoined with a funereal tread
in horns, harps and lowest strings, sets a grave tone.
For a summary of the expansive finale, here are the
insights of the late Mahler scholar and editor Deryck
Cooke:
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“The Adagio finale, The Farewell, is by far the longest
movement, and the crown of the whole work. The
atmosphere is somber and tragic; a deep booming tamtam, a stab of pain in the oboe, a melancholy ‘marching
away’ rhythm on horns and clarinets. A ‘lonely’ narrative
passage, with only a flute obbligato over a held double
bass note, tells of sunset in the mountains, twilight and
the coolness of night. Later a winding oboe melody
evokes murmuring streams; the words speak of night
bringing sleep to weary men and beasts. The narrative
returns: a solitary figure is waiting for a friend to come
and take a last farewell. More murmuring music speaks of
separation and passionate longing. The sounds of nature
fade into silence and darkness, and the opening returns
like a stroke of doom, continuing with bursts of dissonant
counterpoint which strain the tonality to breaking point.
Out of the ‘marching away’ figure grows a flowing, elegiac
funeral march which culminates in a tragic climax. The
narrative returns in utter darkness, without the flute
obbligato: the friend has arrived and takes his farewell….
Then in hushed, broad C-major coda, Mahler looks back
lovingly at life, to words the composer himself added
to the text: ‘The lovely earth blossoms forth all over in
spring and grows green anew’…. The work fades out
in unsatisfied longing, the soloist’s last ‘forever’ floating
suspended on the air.”
Instrumentation: tenor and mezzo soloists with
orchestra comprising piccolo, 3 flutes (1 doubling second
piccolo), 3 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 3 clarinets,
E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons (1 doubling
contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba,
timpani, bass drum, cymbals, bells, suspended cymbal,
tam-tam, triangle, 2 harps, celesta, mandolin and strings
Excerpted from a program note by Mary Ann Feldman.
“The last song of his
great symphony,
The Song of the Earth…
is one of the most
beautiful endings
any piece of music
has ever had.”
– Leonard Bernstein
to students attending a
New York Philharmonic
Young People’s Concert in 1960,
Mahler’s centenary year
Text and Translation
apr 10, 11
Bald werden die verwelkten, goldnen Soon the withered golden petals
Blätter
der Lotosblüten auf dem Wasser ziehn. of lotus flowers will float by on the water.
TEXT AND TRANSLATION:
Das Lied von der Erde
(The Song of the Earth)
Das Trinklied vom
Jammer der Erde
The Drinking Song of
Earth’s Sorrow
Schon winkt der Wein im gold’nen
Pokale,
Doch trinkt noch nicht, erst sing ich
euch ein Lied!
Das Lied vom Kummer soll auflachend
in die Seele euch klingen.
Wenn der Kummer naht,
liegen wüst die Gärten der Seele,
welkt hin und stirbt die Freude, der
Gesang.
Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod.
The wine already beckons from the
golden goblet,
but don’t drink just yet—first, I’ll sing
you a song!
The song of sorrow shall sound outin
laughter in your soul.
When sorrow draws near,
the gardens of the soul lie wasted,
both joy and song wilt
and die.
Dark is life, dark is death.
Herr dieses Hauses!
Dein Keller birgt die Fülle des
goldenen Weins!
Hier, diese lange Laute nenn’ ich mein!
Die Laute schlagen und die Gläser
leeren,
das sind die Dinge, die zusammen
passen.
Ein voller Becher Weins zur rechten Zeit
ist mehr wert, als alle Reiche dieser
Erde!
Dunkel is das Leben, ist der Tod.
Master of this house!
Your cellar holds plenty of golden
wine!
Here, this lute shall be mine!
Strumming the lute and draining
glasses,
those are the things that go well
together.
A full goblet of wine at the right time
is worth more than all the riches of
this world!
Dark is life, dark is death.
Das Firmament blaut ewig und die
Erde
wird lange fest stehen und aufblühn
im Lenz.
Du aber, Mensch, wie lang lebst
denn du?
Nicht hundert Jahre darfst du dich
ergötzen
an all dem morschen Tande dieser Erde!
The firmament is forever blue, and
the earth
Will remain for a long time and
blossom in spring.
But you, Man/Woman, how long will
you live?
Not even for a hundred years are you
allowed to revel
in all the rotten trinkets of this earth!
Seht dort hinab!
Im Mondschein auf den Gräbern hockt
eine wildgespenstische Gestalt—
Ein Aff ist’s!
Hört ihr, wie sein Heulen
Hinausgellt in den süßen Duft des
Lebens!
Jetzt nehm den Wein! Jetzt ist es
Zeit, Genossen!
Leert eure goldnen Becher zu Grund!
Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod!
Look down there!
In the moonlight, on the graves
crouches a wild, ghostly figure—
It’s a monkey!
Listen how the sound of its howls pierces
the sweet fragrance
of life!
Now take the wine! Now is the time,
Comrades!
Drain your golden goblets to the bottom!
Dark is life, dark is death!
Der Einsame
im Herbst
The Lonely one in
autumn
Herbstnebel wallen bläulich überm See;
vom Reif bezogen stehen alle Gräser;
man meint’, ein Künstler habe Staub
vom Jade
über die feinen Blüten ausgestreut.
Blueish autumn mists hover over the lake;
white frost covers all grasses;
One would think an artist had strewn
jade dust
over the delicate stems.
Der süße Duft der Blumen is
verflogen;
ein kalter Wind beugt ihre Stengel
nieder.
The sweet fragrance of the flowers
has been blown away;
a cold wind bends their stems down.
Mein Herz ist müde. Meine kleine Lampe
erlosch mit Knistern;
es gemahnt mich an den Schlaf.
Ich komm zu dir, traute
Ruhestätte!
Ja, gib mir Ruh, ich hab Erquickung
not!
My heart is weary. My little lamp
has gone out with a hiss;
reminding me of sleep.
I am coming to you, beloved resting
place!
Yes, give me rest—I need to be
refreshed!
Ich weine viel in meinen Einsamkeiten.
Der Herbst in meinem Herzen währt
zu lange.
Sonne der Liebe, willst du nie mehr
scheinen,
um meine bittern Tränen mild
aufzutrocknen?
I weep a lot in my loneliness.
The autumn in my heart has lasted
too long.
Sun of love, will you never shine
again,
to gently dry my bitter tears?
Von der Jugend
Youth
Mitten in dem kleinen Teiche
steht ein Pavillon aus grünem
und aus weißem Porzellan.
In the middle of the small lake
stands a pavilion made of green
and white porcelain.
Wie der Rücken eines Tigers
Wölbt die Brücke sich aus Jade
Zu dem Pavillon hinüber.
Like a tiger’s back
the bridge of jade arches
across to the pavilion.
In dem Häuschen sitzen Freunde,
schön gekleidet, trinken,
plaudern,
manche schreiben Verse nieder.
Friends sit in the little house,
beautifully dressed, drinking,
chatting;
some are writing down verses.
Ihre seidnen Ärmel gleiten
rückwärts, ihre seidnen Mützen
hocken lustig tief im Nacken.
Their silk sleeves glide
back, their silk caps
pushed jauntily back on their heads.
Auf des kleinen Teiches stiller
wasserfläche zeigt sich alles
wunderlich im Spiegelbilde.
On the small lakes’ still
surface, all strange things are shown
as a mirror image.
Alles auf dem Kopfe stehend
in dem Pavillon aus grünem
Und aus weißem Porzellan;
Everything is turned on its head
in the pavilion made of green
and white porcelain.
Wie ein Halbmond steht die Brücke,
umgekehrt der Bogen. Freunde,
schön gekleidet, trinken, plaudern.
Like a half-moon seems the bridge,
its arch inverted. Friends,
beautifully dressed, drinking,
chatting.
Von der Schönheit
beauty
Junge Mädchen pflücken Blumen,
pflücken Lotosblumen an dem
Uferrande.
Zwischen Büschen und Blättern
sitzen sie,
sammeln Blüten in den Schoß und
rufen
sich einander Neckereien zu.
Young girls pick flowers,
pick lotus flowers at the water’s
edge.
They sit among bushes and
leaves,
Gathering blossoms in their laps and
calling
to one another teasingly.
Goldne Sonne webt um die
Gestalten,
spiegelt sie im blanken Wasser wider.
Sonne spiegelt ihre schlanken Glieder,
ihre süßen Augen wider,
und der Zephyr hebt mit
Schmeichelkosen das Gewebe
ihrer Ärmel auf, führt den
Zauber
ihrer Wohlgerüche durch die Luft.
Golden sunlight weaves around the
figures,
mirroring them in the shiny water.
The sun reflects their slender limbs,
their sweet eyes,
and Zephyr lifts with flattering
caresses
the fabric of their sleeves, carrying
the magic
of their fragrances through the air.
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Text and Translation
O sieh, was tummeln sich für
schöne Knaben
dort an dem Uferrand auf mut’gen
Rossen,
weithin glänzend wie die
Sonnenstrahlen;
schon zwischen dem Geäst der
grünen Weiden
trabt das jungfrische Volk einher!
Das Roß des einen wiehert
fröhlich auf
und scheut und saust dahin;
über Blumen, Gräser, wanken hin
die Hufe,
sie zerstampfen jäh im Sturm die
hingesunknen Blüten.
Hei! Wie flattern im Taumel seine
Mähnen,
dampfen heiß die Nüstern!
Goldne Sonne webt um die
Gestalten,
spiegelt sie im blanken Wasser
wider.
O look, what handsome boys are
gathering
there along the shore on their
brave horses,
Shining far and bright like
sunbeams;
Already among the branches of
the green willows,
the fresh-faced youth are approaching!
The horse of one of them whinnies
merrily,
and shies and dashes away;
over flowers, grasses, its hooves
are swinging,
crushing the fallen blossoms like
a storm.
Ha! How its mane flutters in a
frenzy,
how hot the steam is from its nostrils!
The golden sun weaves around the
figures,
mirroring them in the shiny water.
Und die schönste von den
Jungfraun sendet
lange Blicke ihm der Sehnsucht nach.
Ihre stolze Haltung is nur
Verstellung.
In dem Funkeln ihrer großen Augen,
in dem Dunkel ihres heißen
Blicks
schwingt klagend noch die
Erregung ihres Herzens nach.
And the most beautiful of the
young women sends
long, yearning looks after him.
Her proud posture is only a
pretense.
In the sparkle of her wide eyes,
in the darkness of her burning
gaze,
the agitation of her heart still
lingers on, lamenting.
Der Trunkene
im Frühling
The Drunkard
in Spring
Wenn nur ein Traum das Dasein ist,
warum denn Müh und Plag?
Ich trinke, bis ich nicht mehr kann,
den ganzen, lieben Tag!
If life is only a dream,
why then the toil and misery?
I drink until I can no more,
The whole day long!
Und wenn ich nicht mehr trinken
kann,
weil Leib und Kehle voll,
So tauml’ ich hin vor meiner Tür
und schlafe wundervoll!
And when I can drink
no more,
because my body and soul are full,
I stagger to my doorway
and sleep wonderfully!
Was hör ich beim Erwachen?
Horch!
Ein Vogel singt im Baum.
Ich frag ihn, ob schon Frühling sei,
mir ist als wie im Traum.
What do I hear when I awake?
Listen!
A bird singing in the tree.
I ask him if it is spring yet,
I think I’m dreaming.
Der Vogel zwitschert: “Ja! Der Lenz
ist da, sei kommen über Nacht!”
Aus tiefstem Schauen lauscht ich
auf,
Der Vogel singt und lacht!
The bird twitters, “Yes! Spring
is here, it has come overnight!”
Roused from deep contemplation
I listen,
The bird sings and laughs!
Ich fülle mir den Becher neu
und leer ihn bis zum Grund
und singe, bis der Mond erglänzt
am schwarzen Firmament!
I fill my goblet once again
and drain it to the bottom
and sing, until the moon shines out
from the pitch-black sky!
Und wenn ich nicht mehr singen
kann,
So schlaf ich wieder ein,
Was geht denn mich der Frühling an!?
Laßt mich betrunken sein!
And when I can sing no longer,
I fall asleep again,
for what do I care about spring?
Let me be drunk!
Der Abschied
The farewell
Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem
Gebirge.
In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
mit seinen Schatten, die voll
Kühlung sind.
O sieh! Wie eine Silberbarke
schwebt
der Mond am blauen Himmelssee
herauf.
Ich spüre eines feinen Windes Wehn
hinter den dunklen Fichten!
The sun vanishes behind the
mountains.
Evening descends into all the valleys,
with its cool, refreshing shadows.
Der Bach singt voller Wohllaut
durch das Dunkel.
Die Blumen blassen im
Dämmerschein.
Die Erde atmet voll von Ruh und
Schlaf,
alle Sehnsucht will nun träumen.
Die müden Menschen gehn
heimwärts,
um im Schlaf vergeßnes Glück
und Jugend neu zu lernen!
Die Vögel hocken still in ihren
Zweigen.
Die Welt schläft ein!
The stream sings pleasantly
through the darkness.
The flowers turn pale in the
twilight.
The earth breathes, full of peace
and sleep,
and all longing wants to dream now.
Weary people make their way
home,
to learn again in their sleep
forgotten happiness and youth!
The birds perch silently on their
branches.
The world is falling asleep!
Es wehet kühl im Schatten meiner
Fichten.
Ich stehe hier und harre meines
Freundes;
ich harre sein zum letzten Lebewohl.
Ich sehne mich, o Freund, an
deiner Seite
die Schönheit dieses Abends zu
genießen.
Wo bleibst du? Du läßt mich lang
allein!
Ich wandle auf und nieder mit
meiner Laute
auf Wegen, die vom weichen
Grase schwellen.
O Schönheit! O ewigen LiebensLebenstrunkne Welt!
A cool breeze blows in the shade
of my spruce.
I stand here and wait for my
friend;
I wait to bid him a last farewell.
O my friend, I long to enjoy
Er stieg vom Pferd und reichte ihm
den Trunk des Abschieds
dar.
Er fragte ihn, wohin er führe,
und auch warum es müsste sein.
Er sprach, seine Stimme war
umflort:
Du, mein Freund,
mir war auf dieser Welt das Glück
nicht hold!
Wohin ich geh? Ich geh, ich
wand’re in die Berge.
Ich suche Ruhe für mein einsames
Herz.
Ich wandle nach der Heimat,
meiner Stätte.
Ich werde niemals in die Ferne
schweifen.
Still ist mein Herz und harret
seiner Stunde!
Die liebe Erde allüberall
Blüht auf im Lenz und grünt aufs
neu!
Allüberall und ewig blauen licht
die Fernen!
Ewig… ewig…
He climbed down from his horse
and offered his friend the drink
of farewell.
he asked him where he was heading,
and why it had to be so.
He spoke—there was sadness in
his voice:
You, my friend,
Fortune has not favored me in this
world!
Where am I going? I go away,
I’ll walk into the mountains.
I seek peace for my lonely
heart.
I walk towards my homeland, my
abode.
I shall never wander far from
there.
Quiet is my heart as it awaits its
hour!
Everywhere the good earth
blossoms in spring and turns green
once again!
Everywhere and forever, distant
spaces shine their blue light!
Forever… forever…
O look! Like
a silver boat,
the moon floats up onto the sky’s
blue lake.
I feel a fine wind blowing
behind the dark spruce!
at your side the beauty of this
evening.
Where are you? You leave me
alone for so long!
I wander up and down with my
lute,
on paths swelling with
soft grass.
O beauty! O world, drunk with
eternal love and life!
—Translation © Susanne Frank, 2009
46
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