German Pronounciation by Claire Marion
O schöne Nacht (Brahms)
English Translation
O lovely night
O lovely night!
In the heavens, the moon gleams magically
in all its splendour;
about it, the sweet comradeship
of tiny stars.
The dew glimmers brightly
on the green blades of grass; with great power,
the nightingale sings out in the elder-bush;
the young man steals quietly to his sweetheart –
O lovely night!
Poetic reading
Rhythmic Reading
An die Sonne (Schubert)
English Translation
To the Sun
English Translation © Richard Wigmore
O sun, queen of the world,
who lights our dark lives –
O sun, queen of the world,
who lights our dark round
in shining majesty;
sublime marvel of a hand
which spread out the distant heavens
and strewed the stars within them!
Today I can still see your radiance;
in its garlands of flowers
nature still smiles upon me today.
Tomorrow the bright-feathered hosts of birds
may never again sing to me
in the woods and the meadows.
I feel that I am mortal;
my life withers away like grass,
like languishing leaves.
Who knows how unexpectedly, how soon
the voice of the Almighty will ring out to me:
‘Return to the dust!’