The Chained Muse

How brightly nature

Shines this morning!

See the glowing sun!

Hear the fields sing!

Fragrant buds burst forth
From each green frond!
A thousand bushes
Resound with song!

And joy and wonder
Streams from each breast.
Oh Earth! Oh bright Sun!
My heart won't rest!

Loveliest of l...

I know the day comes when my eyes close,
when my sight fails,
when life takes its leave in silence
and the last curtain veils my vision.
Yet the stars will still watch by night;
the sun will still rise like before;
the hours will still heave like sea waves
casting up p...

Holy night, descending softly,

Descending, too, are our dreams,

Like moonlight through a darkened room,

Through the depths of a man`s breast.

He listens with elation;

When Night starts to fade, he cries:

Come back, holy night,

Return, sweetest dreams, return!

Translation © Dav...

Full-blossoming moon! Here in thy light
Like flowing gold the ocean gleams;
As limpid as day, yet dimly bewitched,
Reposing across the expanse of the strand;
And in the bright blue, starless heavens
Hover the clouds of white,
Like colossal god-tableaus
Of luminous marb...

Fall rain, fall upon this old world,

And wake deep inside me the dreams

That I dreamt when I was a child,

When rain would wet the golden sand.

When the sultry summer breezes

Frolicked through the evening coolness

And the morning’s dewy leaves thawed,

When the crops shone a da...

On the seashores of endless worlds, earth's children converge.
The infinite sky is motionless, the restless waters boisterous.
On the seashores of endless worlds earth's children gather to dance with joyous cries and pirouettes.
They build sand castles and play with ho...

I sit here lonely on a hill

Where skies are clear and blue;

The sunset casts a glowing veil

Over the deep and tranquil dale—

I used to love this view.

I walked with my beloved there,

She was so close, so dear.

I saw within the mountain streams,

In sky and clouds, lik...

Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53

"Marie and I were sitting in the dining-room when the bell rang, and we heard Brahms go to our mother's room. Soon afterwards, deeply stirring and solemn music reached our ears. We listened. Brahms went away, and our mother came to us in a state of...