Translation Trashbin - 5. Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

this piece is powerful to me. it's not sad but more lonely. it makes me feel the dead, are in a kind of timeless place and maybe don't know they are dead but are simply away.  It's wonderful AC and beautiful.

5 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

this piece is powerful to me. it's not sad but more lonely. it makes me feel the dead, are in a kind of timeless place and maybe don't know they are dead but are simply away.  It's wonderful AC and beautiful.

Thank you, Tim.

I can understand the original German text too, and it makes me contemplate the ambiguity of the poem. One interpretation is physical death, but another is mental death, such as dementia or madness or simply a withdrawal from the world into your own mind.

3 minutes ago, Timothy M. said:

I can understand the original German text too, and it makes me contemplate the ambiguity of the poem. One interpretation is physical death, but another is mental death, such as dementia or madness or simply a withdrawal from the world into your own mind.

Thank you, Tim

This piece evokes both loneliness and isolation. A lovely interpretation of the piece. 

The music adds to the quiet solemnity of this piece. To me, it feels like resigned acceptance, knowing what is to come.  It is beautiful AC.. 

(Jessye Norman’s voice..)

This puts me in mind of my maternal grandmother. She was lost to dementia for several years before her death. After awhile it became too painful to visit her. Grandma was gone into an another place where we could not follow, leaving but the husk of her physical being in this world.

3 hours ago, Parker Owens said:

 

I quite agree with this - yet there is a sense  of serenity in the music to color the poetry, too. This only serves to heighten the ambiguity you identified. This translation fits Mahler’s music wonderfully well, and makes this kind of discussion accessible to me. Unlike Tim, my German is pretty rusty. Thank you, AC. 

Thank you, Parker

2 hours ago, BlindAmbition said:

This piece evokes both loneliness and isolation. A lovely interpretation of the piece. 

Thank you, JP

2 hours ago, Defiance19 said:

The music adds to the quiet solemnity of this piece. To me, it feels like resigned acceptance, knowing what is to come.  It is beautiful AC.. 

(Jessye Norman’s voice..)

Thank you, Def

1 hour ago, dughlas said:

This puts me in mind of my maternal grandmother. She was lost to dementia for several years before her death. After awhile it became too painful to visit her. Grandma was gone into an another place where we could not follow, leaving but the husk of her physical being in this world.

Thank you, Dugh

Another set of comments I received from Lyssa

----------------------------

Burderherz,
 I read it, I listened to the music, cried and tried to sing it. It is so wonderful, so deeply touching. I wish I could give you a real embrace.
I love the way you found for Rückert`s word in English. Your choices of translation and pictures are very good and capture the emotions and phrasing of the original and the performance is exact. I really like the way you translated "meinem Lieben" into the personal my loves /(meine Lieben), because our love is bound to persons.

But there is much more to your work. I can feel your heart and your love for your mother in it. The poem is so sad, nevertheless it holds something consoling, the thought of being in a place where your love and loved ones and your song lives on. Knowing you and your great heart, I know, this place exist.
 

Thank you for sharing it with me. It reminded me, that there is this place in my heart as well, which holds loved ones with me. I am going to sing it again.

Kisses, your sister.

On 12/13/2017 at 5:59 PM, AC Benus said:

Burderherz,
 I read it, I listened to the music, cried and tried to sing it. It is so wonderful, so deeply touching. I wish I could give you a real embrace.
I love the way you found for Rückert`s word in English. Your choices of translation and pictures are very good and capture the emotions and phrasing of the original and the performance is exact. I really like the way you translated "meinem Lieben" into the personal my loves /(meine Lieben), because our love is bound to persons.

But there is much more to your work. I can feel your heart and your love for your mother in it. The poem is so sad, nevertheless it holds something consoling, the thought of being in a place where your love and loved ones and your song lives on. Knowing you and your great heart, I know, this place exist.
 

Thank you for sharing it with me. It reminded me, that there is this place in my heart as well, which holds loved ones with me. I am going to sing it again.

Kisses, your sister.

 

 

Thank you, Lyssa. I feel you know my poetry so well. I couldn't reduce the world to an 'it' and call it that, and the German openness of conceiving of the world as a 'she' also seems too unfamiliar to an English-speaking mind. Thus, 'they.' I think it works, so I appreciate your words here. And 'they' returns the intimacy that 'she' could have in German.