WMV Music Web Log

More translations, in preparation for our May 20 concert, with mezzo soprano Karyn Friedman














Von ewiger Liebe (poem by Josef Wenzig) Brahms, Op. 43#1:

Forever Eternal

Twilight and darkness in forest and field
Evening already quiets the world
Few cottage lights, no chimney smoke
Silent even the song of the lark.

A youth leads a girl out of the village,
They pass the willows, so serious, talking.

Said the youth to the maiden:
“If you fear shame and disgrace,
Let us part quickly, the way that we met.
Like rain, like wind, like our first meeting.”

Then said the maiden, the maiden she said:
“Our love is sacred, we shall part never!
Firm as the rock and strong as iron,
Our love stronger still!
Iron and steel, they melt in a forge.
Love, our love: who can change?
Iron and steel, they perish in time.
Our love, our love is eternal forever!”

Two Songs for voice, viola, and piano, Op. 91:

Still Longing (Gestillte Sehnsucht, Friedrich Rückert)

How solemnly the forest stands
Bathed in golden evening light!
The birds are singing softly in quiet breeze.

What is it they whisper, the birds and the air?
They whisper the world to sleep.

But you, my desires, my heart’s endless longings
When do you rest, when sleep?

By the whispering wind, by gentle bird song,
My wishes, desires,
When do you rest, when sleep?

When soul is drawn no longer by fevered dreams
Toward golden distances
When eye dwells no longer on distant stars,

Then the whispering wind and gentle birdsong,
Along with my longings, will give my life rest.


Cradlesong (after Lope de Vega, by emanuel Geibel)

[Text of old song, not sung, but played by viola:
Joseph, dear one, Joseph mine,
Help me rock the child divine
Heaven will reward your toil
For God, the Son of Virgin
Mary, Mary.]

You who hover in treetops,
You holy angels, in night and wind,
Protect my child, my child who sleeps!

You palms of Bethlehem in riotous wind
How can you blow so angry today?
Be still! Hush,
Nod branches softly, grow quiet.
My child is sleeping!
His hurt softens and melts as he sleeps.

Grim cold blows around us,
With what shall I blanket his limbs?
You angels who fly on the wind
Quiet the branches!
My child is sleeping.

(Translations by Carl Banner)

Labels: geistliches wiegenlied, von ewiger liebe