I was listening to Jessye Norman’s performance of Strauss’s Im Abendrot and decided to look up the lyrics, which are a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff. What a magnificent poem, both beautiful and calm, but also foreboding, a memento mori.
I decided to try my hand at translating the poem:
Into the Red of Dusk
We passed through both want and joy
walking hand in hand;
both now resting from our journey,
we look down upon the still land.
Around us, valleys descend,
as the air is darkening,
yet still two larks are soaring
into the scent of night’s dream.
Step over to me, let them wing away,
soon it is time for sleep,
that we might not stray,
lost in this solitude.
Oh vast, still, peace!
So deep into the red of dusk,
we are journey weary.
Could this be death?