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”.)