Monday, November 1, 2010

Spotlight on Repertoire: Allerseelen

In honour of All Souls Day, here is the great Kiri Te Kanawa and Sir George Solti performing Allerseelen by Richard Strauss with poetry by Hermann von Gilm zu Rosenegg.

Translation:
Place on the table the fragrant mignonettes,
Bring inside the last red asters, and let us speak again of love,
as once we did in May.

Give me your hand, so that I can press it secretly;
and if someone sees us, it's all the same to me.
Just give me your sweet gaze,
as once you did in May.
Flowers adorn today each grave, sending off their fragrances;
one day in the year are the dead free.
Come close to my heart, so that I can have you again,
as once I did in May.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ein Tag im Jahr ist ja DEN Toten frei! This mis-translation leads to mis-interpretation. It's not the dead that are free - the DAY is free for us to remember them. This is not a poem about a ghost - it is about All Souls' Day and an intimate meeting on that day. Could be brother and sister meeting up to take flowers to the cemetery - who knows??

From the voice of....