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When my mother taught me to sing,
I often wondered why she cried.
Now as I teach Gypsy children to sing and to play
I find tears stain my cheeks.
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Oh, that most desired happiness does not bloom for our love.
And even if it bloomed, it would not bloom for long.
Why would a tear sneak in between fiery kisses?
Why would I, full of love, hug her anxiously?
Oh, bitter is the parting where hope doesn't arise.
Here, the trembling heart feels that soon, oh soon, it will die miserably.
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In so many hearts there is death like a dark wasteland.
In it, there is space only for grief and for pain.
Here, lies of ardent love enter into that heart,
and that heart, yearning with grief, thinks that it loves.
And once again in this sweet illusion,
that dead heart transforms into paradise
and sings old songs.
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I now stumble around the house, where, earlier, you used to live.
and from loves wound I am bleeding, sweet deceiving love.
And with sad eye I spy if your steps lead you to me.
and I am opening my arms toward you, though I feel tears in my eyes.
Oh, where are you dear, where are you today, why wont you come toward me?
Why don’t I have bliss and joy in my heart? Will I see you never more?
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I know with sweet hope I may even love you,
and that you want my love to grow warmer.
and even when I peek into your eyes in that enchanted night,
and I find out love from them brings heaven down onto me,
here my eye obstructs itself with tears,
because into our happiness, from behind, a bad fate is looking.
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Over the land light sleep reigns
Spread itself over this clear May night.
not brave, the breeze sneaks into leaves.
From heaven came the power of peace.
Flowers dozed off, mysterious tunes whisper quietly in the streams.
The nature blissfully ponders in ecstasy.
Unruly elements everywhere quietened their quarrel.
Stars come together like lights of hope
The earth is changing into heavenly circle.
through my heart, in which bliss bloomed before,
through my heart goes only pain and noise.
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7. |
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Here in the forrest by a brook, I am standing alone, and alone.
and into the brooks waves, in thoughts, I am looking.
Here I see an old stone,
above which the waves run over,
that stone rises and falls without rest under the waves
and the stream leans against it, until the stone falls over.
When will the wave of life carry me away from this world?
When, oh wave of life, will you carry me away?
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In that sweet power of your eyes, how gladly I would die,
If only laughter of beautiful lips didn’t beacon me to life.
Though that sweet death I’ll choose right away,
with love in my chest
when it is me only, that your smiling lip will awaken to life.
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Oh, dear soul, the only one who lived in my heart, till now.
My thoughts circle you, even though a bad fate separates us.
Oh, I wish I were a trumpeter swan.
I would fly to you.
and in the last breath of dieing, I would sing my heart to you.
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Dvorak originally wrote these melodies in his very first song cycle called Cyprise (The Cypress) which was setting of Gustav Pfleger-Moravskýs second cycle of poetry by of the same name. The 18 Cyprise were composed over the course of just 17 days after a devastated Dvorak was rejected by Josefína Čermáková; an actress and one of his piano students. He never published the original cycle, but the melodies haunted him for the rest of his life. These songs can be heard in many of Dvorak’s later works. 23 years after writing the cycle, and after marrying Josefina’s younger sister Anna, Dvorak edited 8 of the songs and reissued them as a set titled Písně milostné (Love Songs).
The songs tell a clear picture; a broken heart and the passage of time.
1. That most desired happiness
(A heart is broken.- The time is fall. The leaves are changing brilliant colors.)
2. Death resides
(Bitterness.- The time is late fall. The trees have shed their leaves and an icy chill hangs in the air.)
3. I now stumble
(A booze emboldened plea.- The time is winter. Spirits warm the body from the cold, but also makes brave the broken heart.)
4. With sweet hope
(A burden to bear. - The time is spring. New life begins to break through. A broken heart still holds on to hope.)
5. Light sleep reigns
(Life goes on.- The time is May. Spring is giving into summer and the dark nights are full of life, but the dark broken heart is in stark contrast to the season.)
6. I am standing alone
(When will it end? - The time is midsummer. As time and water fells the stone in the brook, so does time and pain fell the broken heart.)
7. How gladly I would die
(Eyes are opened.- late summer. Like brilliant beams of light breaking through a canopy of trees, so does new love break through to the heart.)
8. Dear soul
(Good Bye.- The time is fall. Trees say good bye to their leaves as we say good bye to a love that once was.)
