Dein blaues Auge
Dein blaues Auge hält so still,Ich blicke bis zum Grund.Du fragst mich, was ich sehen will?Ich sehe mich gesund.
Es brannte mich ein glühend Paar,Noch schmerzt das Nachgefühl;Das deine ist wie See so klarUnd wie ein See so kühl.
Your blue eyes
Your blue eyes keep so still,That I can gaze upon their very depths.You ask me, what do I want to see?I see my own well-being.A glowing pair burned me once;The scar still hurts, still hurts.Yet your eyes are like the sea so clear,And like the sea, so cool and detached.
Translation copyright © by Emily Ezust,
from The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Archive -- http://www.lieder.net/
Description
by Erik Eriksson
Lasting scarcely more than two minutes, Dein blaues
Auge (Your blue eyes) was written during the year in which Brahms
turned 40 and it ruminates upon soothing temperateness after the
narrator had been scorched by a fierier gaze. He now seeks restoration.
The poem was contributed by Brahms' good friend Klaus Groth,
a writer whose work was remarkable for frequently employing Low German
(Plattdeutch). Here, however, he wrote without dialect of a theme that
particularly appealed to the composer, perhaps to specifically suit Brahms.
"Your eyes maintain such a silence," the singer tells the girl. He
gazes into their depths and, in response to her question about what he
seeks, he tells her he seeks to be restored. Once, he says, a pair of
fervent eyes scorched him and, in the aftermath, he felt only hurt.
"Your eyes are so clear, however, clear like a lake," he sings, "And
like a lake, so cool." Marked Poco lento (somewhat slow), the song
steadily moves in 4/4 meter. Eight notes populate the accompaniment in
each hand, anchored in the bass clef by octaves and fuller chords at the
beginning of the each verse as they are sounded in the treble and
descending to the left hand at the close of both stanzas. The
accompaniment begins at forte and gradually softens to piano over the
four-measure introduction as the voice enters. Falling figures in the
right hand are met by rising figures in the left in the first and third
measures, while in the second and third, the right hand pulses in eighth
notes over simple chords in the left. Those who accuse Brahms
of insensitivity to the words he set might contemplate the subtleties
found here. At the very beginning is a foreshadowing of the couple
peering into each other's eyes. Similarly, the descent of the vocal line
to the word "still" (silence) suggests rapt contemplation. The
strophe-ending fall through an entire octave to "gesund" (restored)
likewise intimates quiet resolve or hope. The song may also hold
something more than a theme consonant with Brahms' imagination: there may be some autobiography. The five-note "Clara Schumann" theme is found in the left hand under "you inquire what I seek" and she was known for her lovely eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO1am3yGPxE
Grade 6 Exam Piece. A beautifully sad piece with so much emotion in less than 2 mins.
