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7.3: Liebestod

  • Page ID
    72619

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    This very brief Wikipedia article contains the original German text of the aria and an English translation. I’d definitely suggest listening to the aria with the translation in front of you. It’s much more meaningful if you understand what’s being sung.

    Introduction

    Liebestod” ([ˈliːbəsˌtoːt] German for “love death”) is the title of the final, dramatic music from the 1859 opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner. When used as a literary term,liebestod (from German Liebe, love and Tod, death) refers to the theme of erotic death or “love death” meaning the two lovers’ consummation of their love in death or after death. Other two-sided examples include Pyramus and Thisbe, Romeo and Juliet, and to some degree Wuthering Heights. One-sided examples are Porphyria’s Lover and The Sorrows of Young Werther. The joint suicide of Heinrich von Kleist and lover Henriette Vogel (de) is often associated with the Liebestod theme.

    The aria is the climactic end of the opera as Isolde sings over Tristan’s dead body.

    Partial Text

    German

    English Translation

    Mild und leise
    wie er lächelt,
    wie das Auge
    hold er öffnet
    —seht ihr’s, Freunde?
    Seht ihr’s nicht?
    Immer lichter
    wie er leuchtet,
    stern-umstrahlet
    hoch sich hebt?
    Seht ihr’s nicht?

    ertrinken,
    versinken, –
    unbewusst, –
    höchste Lust!

    Softly and gently
    how he smiles,
    how his eyes
    fondly open
    —do you see, friends?
    do you not see?
    how he shines
    ever brighter.
    Star-haloed
    rising higher
    Do you not see?

    […and ends…]

    to drown,
    to founder –
    unconscious –
    utmost bliss!

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