Translations

I. MUSIC FOR A WHILE (Z583)

Music for a while

Shall all your cares beguile,

Shall all, all, etc…

Shall all your cares beguile.

Wond’ring, Wond’ring

How your pains were eased, eased, eased

And distaining to be pleased

‘Til Alecto free the dead

From their eternal bands

‘Til the snakes drop, drop, drop

Drop from her head

And the whip from out her hand

Music for a while

Shall all your cares beguile

II. LES CHANSONS DE BILITIS

I. La Flûte de Pan (The Pan-Pipes)

For the Festival of Hyacinthus

he gave me a syrinx, a set of pipes made

from well-cut reeds joined

with the white wax .

that is sweet to my lips like honey.

He is teaching me to play, as I sit on his knees;

but I tremble a little.

He plays it after me, so softly

that I can scarcely hear it.

We are so close that we have

nothing to say to one another;

but our songs want to converse,

and our mouths are joined

as they take turns on the pipes.

It is late:

Here comes the chant of the green frogs,

which begins at dusk.

My mother will never believe

I spent so long

searching for my lost waistband.

II. Le Chevelure (The Hair)

He told me: “Last night I had a dream.

Your hair was around my neck,

it was like a black necklace

round my nape and on my chest

“I was stroking your hair, and it was my own;

thus the same tresses joined us forever,

with our mouths touching,

just as two laurels often have only one root.

“ And gradually I sensed,

since our limbs were so entwined,

that I was becoming you

and you were entering me like my dream.”

When he’d finished,

he gently put his hands on my shoulders,

and gazed at me so tenderly

that I lowered my eyes, quivering.

III. Le Tombeau des Naiades (The Tomb of the Water Nymphs)

I was walking along in the frost-covered woods;

in front of my mouth

my hair blossomed in tiny icicles,

and my sandals were heavy

with muddy caked snow.

He asked: “What are you looking for?”

“I’m following the tracks of the satyr-

his little cloven hoof-prints alternate

like holes in a white cloak.”

He said: “ The satyrs are dead.

The satrys are dead, and the nymphs too.

In thirty years there has not been such a terrible winter.

That’s the trail of a he-goat.

But let’s pause here, where their tomb is.”

With his hoe he broke the ice

Of the spring where the water-nymphs used to laugh.

There he was, picking up large cold slabs of ice,

Lifting them toward the pale sky,

And peering through them.

III. BLUE MOUNTAIN BALLADS

I. Heavenly Grass (text by Tennessee Williams)

My feet took a walk in heavenly grass.

All day while the sky shone clear as glass.

My feet took a walk in heavenly grass,

All night while the lonesome stars tolled past.

Then my feet come down to walk on earth,

And my mother cried when she gave me birth.

Now my feet walk far and my feet walk fast,

But they still got an itch for heavenly grass.

II. Lonesome Man

My chair rock-rocks by the door all day

But nobody ever stops my way,

Nobody ever stops by my way.

My teef chaw-chaw on an old ham bone an’

I do the dishes all alone.

I do the dishes all by lone.

My feet clop-clop on the hardware floor ‘cause

I won’t buy love at the hardware store,

I don’t want love from the mercantile store

Now the clock tick-tocks by my single bed

while the moon looks down on my sleepless head

While the moon grins down at an ole fool’s head.

III. Cabin

The cabin was cozy

And hollyhocks grew

Bright by the door

Till is whisper crept through.

The sun on the sill

Was yellow and warm

Till she lifted the latch

For a man or a storm.

Now the cabin falls

To the winter wind

And the walls cave in

Where they kissed and sinned.

And the long white rain

Sweeps clean the room

Like a white-haired witch

With a long straw broom!

IV. Sugar in the Cane

I’m red pepper in a shaker

Bread that’s waitin’ for the baker,

I’m sweet sugar in the cane,

Never touched except by rain.

If you touched me God save you,

These summer days are hot and blue.

I’m potatoes not yet mashed,

I’m a check that ain’t been cashed.

I’m a window with a blind,

Can’t see what goes on behind.

If you did, God save your soul!

These winter nights are blue and cold!

IV. AIR DES LETTRES FROM WERTHER

ACT 3, SCENE 2, CHRISTMAS EVE

Werther! Werther! Who today would have told me the place in which he holds my heart?

Since he has left, in spite of myself, everything wearies me, and my soul is filled with him!

His letters! His letters!

Ah, I reread them constantly…. with what charm, but also sadness!

I should destroy them… I can’t!

“I am writing you from my little room.

A grey and heavy sky of December weighs on my like a shroud

And I am alone, always alone!”- W

Ah! No one is with him! Not a single bit of evidence of tenderness or even pity!

God! How did I come upon this sad courage to order this exile and this isolation?

“ Joyful cries of children rise from beneath my window, cries of children!

And I think of the time so sweet when all your dear little ones were playing around us.

They will forget me, perhaps?”- W

No Werther, in their memory, your image remains alive. And when you return….

But will be come back? Ah! This last note freezes me and terrifies me!

“ You said to me, ‘Until Christmas,’ and I said ‘Never!’ One will soon know which of us

speaking the truth,… but if I should reappear, on the fixed day, before you,

Do not accuse me, weep for me!"- W

Do not accuse me, weep for me! Yes, with those eyes so full of charm, these lines, you will read them again

and you will dampen them from your tears. O Charlotte, you will tremble, you will tremble!

V. LIEDER EINES FAHRENDEN GESELLEN

I. Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht

When my sweetheart has her wedding

has her joyful wedding,

I will have my wretched day! :

I’ll go to my little room,

gloomy little room!

I’ll weep! I’ll weep for my sweetheart,

my beloved sweetheart!

Little blue flower! Little blue flower!

Wither not! Wither not!

Sweet little bird! Sweet little bird!

You sing on the green heath!

Ah! The world is so lovely!

Chirrup! Chirrup!

Sing not! Blossom not!

Spring is truly past!

All singing is now done!

Evenings when I go to bed,

I think on my pain!

II. Gieng heut’ Morgen über’s Feld

I went out this morning over the countryside,

dew still hung from the grass;

the merry finch spoke to me

“Oh, it’s you, is it? Good morning!

Is it not a lovely world?

Chirp, Chirp! Pretty and lively!

How the world delights me!”

The bluebells in the meadow also

rang merrily and cheerfully for me

with their little bells, ring-a-ring,

rang their morning greeting:

“Is it not a lovely world!?

Ring, ring! Pretty thing!

How the world delights me! Ho!”

And then in the sunshine

The world at once began to sparkle

everything, everything took on

sound and color in the sunshine!

Flower and bird, the large and the small!

“Good day! Lovely world!”

Now surely my happiness also begins?!

No! No! What I love can never bloom for me!

III. Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer

I have a glowing knife, a knife in my breast,

Alas! Alas!

It cut so deep into every joy and every delight,

So deep, so deep!

Ah, what an evil guest it is!

It never keeps still, it never rests,

neither by day nor by night when I would sleep!

Alas! Alas! Alas!

When I look up to heaven,

I see two blue eyes there!

Alas! Alas!

When I walk in the yellow field

I see from afar the blonde hair

Blowing in the wind! Alas! Alas!

When I awake from the dream

and hear her silver laughter ringing,

alas! alas!

and could never, never open my eyes!

IV. Die zwei blauen Augen (The two blue eyes)

The two blue eyes of my sweetheart

Have sent me into the wide world.

So I had to take leave of the dearest place!

O eyes, blue! Why did you look at me?

Now I have eternal pain and sorrow!

I went out in the still night, over the gloomy heath.

No one said farewell to me,

Farewell! Farwell! Farewell!

My companion was love and sorrow!

On the highway stood a linden tree,

for the first time did I rest in sleep!

Under the linden tree,

which snowed its blossoms down on me,

there I knew not how life goes,

everything was fine again,

ah, everything as fine again!

I wish that I were lying on the black bier,