Saturday, September 7, 2019

English translation of Franz Schubert "Mein Gebet" (My Prayer) by Rolf-Peter Wille


Franz Schubert, the famous Austrian composer, was a poet as well. In 1823, five years before his death, he wrote a very touching “Mein Gebet” (My Prayer) in which “he” (or the narrator) asks God to take “his” miserable life so that he can be reborn as a pure being. This poem matches the mood of many of Schubert's late compositions and I have recited it before a performance of his F-Minor Fantasy. Here is my English translation (...the verses are more touching in German!):

         My Prayer (1823)

Deeper yearning's holy longing
Into fairer worlds is thronging;
   Wants to penetrate dark space
   With almighty loving rays.
  
To your son, Great Father, borrow,
In reward for deepest sorrow,
   As salvation from above
   Your eternal ray of love!

See, abased in dust and ashes,
Prey to agonizing lashes,
   Lies my life in torture's thrall
   Nearing its eternal fall.

Kill it and my flesh and blood,
Throw All into Lethe's flood, 
   And a purer, stronger life
   Let, o Great One, then be rife.
   
                                            (tr. Rolf-Peter Wille)


This is the original German:


               Mein Gebet

Tiefer Sehnsucht heil'ges Bangen
Will in schön're Welten langen;
   Möchte füllen dunklen Raum
   Mit allmächt'gem Liebestraum.

Großer Vater! reich' dem Sohne,
Tiefer Schmerzen nun zum Lohne,
   Endlich als Erlösungsmahl
   Deiner Liebe ew'gen Strahl.

Sieh, vernichtet liegt im Staube,
Unerhörtem Gram zum Raube,
   Meines Lebens Martergang
   Nahend ew'gem Untergang.

Tödt' es und mich selber tödte,
Stürz' nun alles in die Lethe,
   Und ein reines kräft'ges Sein
   Laß o Großer, dann gedeih'n.



Here is an earlier translation of Eric Blom who is better known as the editor of the 5th edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1954):


            My Prayer

With a holy zeal I yearn
Life in fairer worlds to learn;
   Would this gloomy earth might seem
   Filled with love's almighty dream.

Sorrow's child, almighty Lord,
Grant Thy bounty for reward.
   For redemption from above
   Send a ray of endless love.

See, abased in dust and mire
Scorched by agonizing fire,
   I in torture go my way
   Nearing doom's destructive day.

Take my life, my flesh and blood,
Plunge it all in Lethe's flood,
   To a purer, stronger state
   Deign me, Great One, to translate.

                                  (tr. Eric Blom)



Sorrow's child”, of course, is a mis-translation: the genitive “tiefer Schmerzen” refers not to “Sohne” but to “Lohne”! (There is a comma after “Sohne”.)




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