performed by Josipa Bainac (mezzo-soprano), David Hausknecht (piano) and Rudolf Leopold (cello)
text by Elsa Asenijeff (1867-1941), translation below
Recording funded by the Austrian Cultural Forum London
Quiet love
One night, when my yearning cannot be silent,
I slip to your bed.
When your eyelids
Flutter like white butterflies on blue flowers,
And your dreams lie on your thoughts
Like stones on deep, deep wells,
Then I slip to your bed,
And hold your beloved head
In my trembling hands,
And cry my tears
Into your eyes.
Then you feel my woe as gnawing pain.
In the morning the day greets you with wet cheeks,
On which my tears still hang,
And you wonder, pensive
With my fear,
What you wept for...! And you do not know.
And you yearn after that pain…
And do not know it!
And you think of a face…
And cannot shape it...!
It rises from the dark into the norm of day...
And sinks back...
And beckons happiness...
That you never knew -
— never suspected!
And you listen so keenly...
And cannot find it.
Quietly in your face the pain subsides.
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